Scientist seeks burger investors
A U.S. scientist has developed a process to grow cow cells into full-size hamburger overnight but he can`t get anyone to invest in the process.
Vladimir Mironov, a biology researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina, said the process involves taking immature cells that develop into skeletal muscles from cows — or pigs, or chickens, or turkeys — and fusing them to a protein that, with the help of steroids, grows into big hunks of meat, The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier reported.
The newspaper said the process isn`t exactly cloning, but more like cattle farming through chemistry.
The scientific procedure has been published in tissue-engineering journals, but Mironov says he can`t find any financial backers, Post and Courier says.
‘In business, who pays to make a product nobody wants to buy?’ Mironov asked. ‘You show this technology and say, `Do you want to try the meat?` and they all say, `No.`’
But Mironov says the long-term benefits of the technology could outweigh the negative public perception.
He told the newspaper: ‘It`s not Frankenstein meat. It`s like hydroponic tomatoes.’
So what’s this? Cowponics?
Cowponics? I like that.
I was in the food distribution business for years.It takes many years to introduce a new product and have it become mainstream.Think organic products here plus a product has to pass the smell test to be accepted.Irradiation is a good example of a technology that doesn’t pass.
That illustration is awesome. I’m vegatarian, so do you think I could eat this? Is it really meat? I guess that would solve the animal welfare issues.
Yuck. Talk about mystery meat.
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where all the food court restaurants in the mall get all their meat from one source down in the sub basement.
If they grow the meat in a lab, I guess they wouldn’t have to inject an animal with all the steroids and antibiotics and whatever else they do to increase yield, so in the end the lab meat may be more healthful.
Its already amazing what is done to our cattle and meats. Do we need more done to it.
Consider the byproducts that can be used from a REAL cow/bull.
AND you realize that BULLS are sold/killed/slaughtered sooner then the cows.
It sounds like the “Barry Bonds” of meat.
Get him to endorse it, and it’ll be a winner.
Read The Jungle.
There are of a lot of organizations that don’t want to see this succeed.
If you think about it, it might actually better. You won’t get the tough-to-chew meat that you get from regular beef, you wont’ have to slaughter an animal, you don’t have to worry about the extra fat, cancers, other tumors, stuck-to-your-teeth nerves. I would miss the good ol’ t-bone steak though! But how about using this feed all the hungry populations all over the world!
@mortamyr
Agreed, this could aid in feeding many underprivileged societies.
Just don’t send any my way. Eww.
Augustus McCrea: Woodrow, bring me that petrie dish!
Capt. Call: There you go Gus.
Augustus McCrea: OK, that’s the last one, let’s drive these dogie cells to Montana!
Capt. Call: Let me saddle my horse, grab my Spencer and I’m ready.
Augustus McCrea: On second thought, we just need some dry ice, a cooler and we can hop in the Prius and drop these off at Fed-X-Kinko’s.
Capt. Call: Damn Gus, if we do that, there won’t be any raging rivers to cross, going days without water, rattlesnakes or gun fights with Indians.
Augustus McCrea: Yeah, but I got killed doing the old way.
Capt. Call: This is gonna make a lousy book.
Augustus McCrea: Yeah, but think of the recurring revenue from the sale of this stuff to BurgerDoodle.
Capt. Call: I’ll get the keys Chempoke.
The ploblem I see is that meat has had billions of years of testing. For me to consider somthing this odd as safe I want to see a good track record. This may work good for 25 years and cause your liver to die after that. I also find this funny since the organic movement is so pushing all-natural, this is not.
The organic movement also pushed hi-tech oils such as Canola and junk oils such as Soy bean. My son observed, curiously, that at the local Whole Foods they had zero cod liver oil for sale. Not new enough? Or what? My guess: not trendy.
Well, you could say that you had the same meat over and over and you could be right.
I wouldn’t be surprised that PeTa would be against it. Too many hippies bitching about everything and not giving a practical solution.
the problem with using this to help fight hunger around the world is those countries won’t accept it. Look what happened over the gentic enhanced foods. Most countries including the poorest won’t touch the stuff.
Superstition and ignorance combined with companies that would be hurt by this happening would make it dead on arrival(no pun intended).
PETA is against it because they’d have nothing left to protest if this replaced the meat industry.
I say bring it on. I’ll be first to eat a burger made of this stuff if it’s really the same as “real” meat. This is the sort of thing that could save the world – no longer would we need to destroy the rain forest for McBurgers, no longer would animals suffer only to be slaughtered for meat, etc. etc.
ANd,
How many countries DONT EAT BEEF??
… at the local Whole Foods they had zero cod liver oil for sale.
Not surprising. There is very little Cod being caught. The Cod was once King off the Eastern Canada and northern New England coasts. Today they are nearly extinct. Any fish you see labeled as Cod is probably some other garbage fish they have renamed Cod. That is why there is no Cod Liver Oil available.
Maybe, if we are lucky, the Cod stocks will return. But don’t expect it in the near future.
Modern American Beef,
Phony food for phony people.
The lack of cod liver oil is, in my opinion, not necessarily a negative. And phony it may be, but a Thickburger and curly fries can make a cold, grey Yankee day seem just a bit brighter.
Well, feeding the starving sounds noble, but as with all such suggestions it shows a fundamental ignorance of the problem. People aren’t starving because there is a lack of food. On the contrary there are huge mountains of food and drink lying around all over the place. The people who are starving either have no money or live in war zones.
If we can’t do something as simple as distribute rice and flour to these people now, how does the ability to grow steak in a jar help them. Get real. NASA are the only guys with a use for this technology right now.
Fresh steaks on the way to Mars.
#21, Omar, I am just old enough to remember getting a daily dose of Cod Liver Oil. And no, I don’t regret that that phase of my life is over.
#22, good point. The only problem with bringing food to drought and insect ravaged areas is that it keeps the people alive just that much longer. If God really wanted them to live, he wouldn’t be trying to kill them off.
Isn’t this the process they use to make KFC clucks?
23,
DONT blame GOD, for mans inhumanity to MANkind..
The only country that springs to mind that dosen’t(as a nation) eat beef would be India, I think. Muslims don’t eat Pork, nor do the Jewish faith, so growing pork roasts might not be a big seller, in many areas.
As to starving nations, while war is a cause of starvation, most of the worlds starving are usually do to poor soils, drought, and pests. The problem is made worse by the wealthy nations reluctance to give till it hurts and then the logistics of delivery, especially in countries where you have to bribe everyone from the President on down(no, not the U.S.) just to get the food into the country.