In-Vitro meat may be coming soon to a supermarket near you

The world has seen the first international conference on manufacturing meat. This is the process, tested so far only at laboratory scale, of growing pork, chicken, or beef through cell culture in vats instead of raising and slaughtering animals.

...one could envision someday a model, say, of a solar-powered facility in southern California or Singapore basically turning sunlight and desalinated seawater into growth medium and then tons of cruelty-free, sustainable nuggets of chicken essence.

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I think this is great. No more animals would have to die to give us meat. Significantly less chance of contamination or diseased meat.

There's no say about how soon we'll see in-vitro meat, but maybe with food shortages happening world-wide it'll be prioritized a bit.

Would you vegetarians out there eat in-vitro meat? I would.

I don't know about that, Kruel.

It just seems like there is something inherently wrong with diverting the birth process and consuming the products thereof.

Maybe I am a bit afraid of too much technology based on the old atlantean myths about mankind and getting to smart for himself.

I understand the good point made to not have to slaughter the animals, it just seems pretty far out there, to grow edible flesh in a "vat"

I suppose if the ability of the earth to feed us was contaminated and this process was the only one available I would feel differently, but I would go vegetarian first if veggies are still around!

i'd feel better about eating meat that grew in a vat than meat that came from a slaughtered animal. maybe i wouldn't get specs of ground up bone anymore - sucks to chomps down on that stuff.

Well , i am not sure about it.
No more animal slaughtering - huge plus.
What will this "meat" contain really - a huge ... well actually i do not know yet, lets say minus.
Cows imminent extinction - a huge minus.
As for no more methane from bacteria in cows - a plus.
As for huge available areas to grow crops - huge plus.
Supposedly larger quantities available - plus.
My summary is positive.
But i still do not feel easy about it. Might be my conservatism, but some times conservatism is healthy.
A personal, selfish and self absorbed note - will it be kosher????

Considering the amount of unhealthy chemicals and other dubious substances that the food industry has managed to put onto our plates, I can't imagine that this "manufactured meat product" would be any more desireable.

"Two All-Bioengineered-In-Vitro Beef Patties, Special Sauce, Lettuce, Cheese Pickles ,Onion on a Sesame Seed Bun".

Gotta admit though, it does have a certain ring to it. I'm sure it will be absolutely mouthwatering in the pics...

Most meat you find at the supermarket is pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones. It seems ironic but cultured meat could be more "natural" in a sense.

As for the concept itself being unnatural... sure it is. So is shaving your legs.

If they do end up putting chemicals in cultured meat though I'll be pissed.

reply to post by Kruel


Of course they'll include a crapload of unhealthy additives and chemicals. It serves several agendas at the same time. It boosts sales of the chemicals themselves, it creates more illness and disease for the medical community to "maintain", and it ultimately furthers the goal of reducing population.

Obviously, I have no idea about the actual health effects of such a product but if it follows in the footsteps of what has been generally recognized as a precident within the food industry we can most likely assume the worst.

What a novel idea. I'm very conflicted about whether or not i would feel better eating manufactured meat. We only buy free range flesh products (haha) so at least we're minimizing the amount of chemicals injected into our food. To be honest, the idea of eating manufactured meat almost sounds less humane than raising and killing animals for food.

I personally don't think this will become a reality based on the fact that the scientific process of growing meat is probably more expensive than raising cattle. Although i understand that's pretty expensive as well.

Actually when it will be tuned up, it will be a lot cheaper - modifying a bacteria to produce meat proteins or even muscle filaments will cost a lot but after it will be achieved shaping gooey product into something aesthetic and resembling real meat will cost very little. And these bacteria will certainly feed on some organic waste.
So it will be VERY cheap. Not sure about healthy or nutritional though. What about fat and other stuff that we consume when we eat meat? Meat is not just muscles.
Of course fat, iron,vitamins could be added.
Still not ecstatic about the idea. If i will be able to pay for real meat - i will not touch this substance.

well i guess thats our future, but i rather eat cows then that .. How come when a Lion kills a cute animal to eat it people tend to accept that , but when we kill .. its wrong ? dont we get hungry just like the lions or sharks on the Discovery Channel ? it just doesnt feel right to eat dividing cells that taste like Pork or cow or chicken or etc. :barf

[edit on 15-4-2008 by nexusclub]

reply to post by nexusclub


That's all pork or cow or chicken or etc is.

I'm all for this if it's the same as the real thing and costs the same or less.

funny, if this was held last week in Oslo then one of my professors just came back from that...she seems to think it is a good idea.

I don't eat beef now. Would only eat manufactured meat if I were starving. Vegetables, grains, beans fruits and a small amount of fowl and even smaller amount of pork ( hard to resist bacon ) make up my diet.

Making our existing meat sources safer would seem a better avenue to travel in my opinion.

Originally posted by SystemiK
reply to post by Kruel

 

Of course they'll include a crapload of unhealthy additives and chemicals. It serves several agendas at the same time. It boosts sales of the chemicals themselves, it creates more illness and disease for the medical community to "maintain", and it ultimately furthers the goal of reducing population.

Obviously, I have no idea about the actual health effects of such a product but if it follows in the footsteps of what has been generally recognized as a precedent within the food industry we can most likely assume the worst.

That's laughable. You say that as if the meat industry cares about the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Rest assured that they don't. They, being capitalists don't intentionally have any nefarious interests in mind, they only care about money. They pump cows full of growth hormones because it improves profits. They does 'em with antibiotics in their food because actually individually diagnosing and treating bacterial diseases with legitimate veterinary services is expensive.

The food industry basically cares only about itself, and sells what people want to buy. And apparently, people like to buy sugary, fatty foods that don't spoil and have brightly colored packages and recognizable brand names. There's no regulations on it, so companies are free to sell whatever food they want, as long as it isn't *nigh immediately* harmful.

Herbal and homeopathic medicine gets buy on that too.

And it's not like the stuff is even that bad for you despite all that. Americans eat millions of tons of the stuff every year, and don't suffer much besides heart disease and obesity, mostly caused from eating millions of tons of the stuff every year. Wouldn't matter if was organic raised at that point. Saturated fats'll get you in the end.

We have more diseases today because we live longer on average, and the medical profession thinks of new names for specific sets of symptoms and problems, and pharmaceutical companies create new medicines, of sometimes questionable efficacy, to treat them. People are generally fairly healthy, and tend to die of heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung disease, and car accidents, at an older average age than ever before.


As to the ex-vivo meat, I'd eat it if it was as cheap or cheaper and tasted as good or better. From what I've heard, though, it doesn't taste very good. It'd probably be fine in hotdogs or hamburger, but it doesn't seem like it's going to make for prime cut steaks any decade soon.

And I'm sure there's worse in hotdogs.

Hmm, will it retain the same nutritional value? Eh who am I kidding, I wont be alive by the time this stuff becomes affordable, so I do not really care. We can legislate now to give the future an option, and I say if the today's vote says make it legal, I will support it.

If by some magic of Merlin, this process became affordable and available tomorrow morning and was already in store shelves, I would just treat it like any other meat. Analyze the ingredients and nutritional information, see whether it is humanely reaised without antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives. If it passes all those, I will try it a couple of times to see if I enjoy the flavor. If the flavor comes out ok, I will go ahead and consume this product on a regular basis. but I am not going to get rid of my options. the moment I see a comparable natural meat product (that is live animal source) at a better value (i.e. cost), thats coming home instead.

Originally posted by DYepes
Hmm, will it retain the same nutritional value? Eh who am I kidding, I wont be alive by the time this stuff becomes affordable, so I do not really care.

Im pretty sure that as soon as they can make steakes that aren't mouse sized, the prize of beef will plummet. It just so much cheaper to produce! In essence, its just a petri dish with nutrients, so there's not really anything you can compare to the long and pricy way we get steaks by now.

But yes the flavor will not come close to what we have to day.. But hey, maybe it will better? But i certainly don't believe our normal cow beef will disappear, it might become a thing for more wealthy people..

It all hinges upon the taste of the product.

If it tastes awful (like quorn), nobody will buy it and it will be an epic fail.

If it tastes good/ better than normal meat... chow time.

This would be fantastic! Factory Farming and the Meat Industry in general, just like other big corporations, will sacrifice anything to pinch an extra penny a week, and so they produce some very unhealthy animals with very contanimated meat. I agree with others in that this 'lab meat' would likely be no worse, at the least...

Down with Factory Farming! Bah

Originally posted by interestedalways

I understand the good point made to not have to slaughter the animals, it just seems pretty far out there, to grow edible flesh in a "vat"

Honestly that doesn't sound appealing to me at all But I am a vegetarian of 6 years and never really enjoyed eating meat. Lab meat sounds wack to me, but I imagine it will be perfectly fine with meat-eaters.

Keep in mind most meat consumers have the "don't wanna meet the butcher" mentality. Out of sight out of mind. So at the end of the day the difference probably won't phase them for the same reason.

My primary gripe is the quality of life the animals have while alive through the Factory Farms. It's absolutetly appaling. Nothing like my grandfathers small family farm where all the animals were free-to-range and cared for. This lab-meat idea is bizarre but imo astronomically more humane.

[edit on 043030p://17u30 by Lucid Lunacy]

I can't even visualize something like this.

Will it have bones and organs and a heart?

You just can't grow meat, it isn't a vegetable.

It isn't grown, it is BORN!!!