Scientists grow pork meat in a laboratory – The Times — I’m sure lab grown meat will keep the ethicists busy for a good while. It all seems pretty creepy but if its tasty and not hideously tainted, is it a better idea than killing animals for their flesh? Of course, its being sold as a solution to global warming.
SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.
The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.
So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.
[…]
“You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals,” said Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, who is leading the Dutch government-funded research.Post and his colleagues have so far managed to develop a soggy form of pork and are seeking to improve its texture. “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue,” Post said.
[…]
The Vegetarian Society reacted cautiously yesterday, saying: “The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered. It would be very difficult to label and identify in a way that people would trust.” Peta, the animal rights group, said: “As far as we’re concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there’s no ethical objection.”
This has been tossed about for the past two years.
So if this is an update great, I’ll wait 5 years. If not it will be coming out in three, even better.
I buy and eat lab meat without a problem.
Especially if they grow it will healthy omega-3 fats.
Put me down for a ham and a loin.
Cursor_
Yummy….. and sickly twisted to be more eco-friendly than actually raising pigs. I wonder if the food industry will be forced to label their products as lab-grown much like how produce is not required to be labeled if it is genetically modified (over 90% of the soybeans sold in the U.S. are genetically modified).
All I ask for is mandatory labeling so consumers can vote with their wallets.
“The Vegetarian Society reacted cautiously yesterday, saying: “The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered.”
Funny, I have exactly the same concern…but from the opposite point of view.
#4 Good point, I’ll simply make sure it says ‘freshly but lightly killed’ on the package.
There was talk of this during my school biology lessons 25 years ago. The idea was to make lab food for the sake of space exploration as the idea of a food pill was kind of depressing for long term space travel.
You’ll see two things happen.
1. Farm-raised pork will now get “gourmet” status (much like how sugar-based foods are vs. HFCS-based foods). Expect to pay a premium.
2. The meat will be patented (much like how Monsantos patents all their seeds and sues farmers for patent infringement if farmers recycle seeds from crops grown).
I agree with Eric in that Wal-Mart or McDonald’s would be the first ones on board with this due to cost savings and since both are probably the biggest purchasers of meat, this could force the entire meat industry to conform so we will all be eating it one way or another. I would think if the products are properly labeled, consumers would push back by preferring farm-raised meats.
Of course the marketing spin would circle around lab-grown meat is safer and leaner than farm-grown meat.
Thank you, but I’ll wait until it gets here and we know all the details before passing judgment.
@#2 “I have no problem with GM crops, only with the concept of patenting a gene and all the associated legal ramifications of doing so.” – You forgot the crucial problem with GM crops, differing them from this in-lab-pork. GM crops are not grown in a lab. They are literally released into the Nature, which won’t be contained. Hence whatever GM messed up will find its way to propagate and mix and soon we will be unable to have ANY non-GM crops. Problem with that: GM opens roads to inter-species viruses (avian flu, aids,…?) which are typically devastating pandemics. It is ticking bomb of when (not if) GM crops will open door to something deadly and fast spreading …
Back to the fake pork: main problem there is proper identification, particularly in sausages/processed meat. Reward to cheat is simply too big compared with ease of cheating and inability to distinguish real and fake. Unless there is 100% provable way to say which is which and there are draconian sentences for lying about it – no way it could end well.
Wow! Cursor #1 has something here!
What if the meat is genetically modified to be very low in saturated fats but high in Omega 3 and other good stuff.
Bacon every morning would actually be good for you!
8, Why would lab-grown meat be treated any differently than genetically-modified crops?
Mmm. Soylent bacon.
Chuckle.
Where can I get me one of those suitcases?
I suppose I should run right out and register a trademark, copy write, and domain name including:
“frankensteinfurter”.
Could get Gene Wilder out of retirement to do commercials!
New brand name: ‘PETA-Bred’
No time for lunch? …
NEW QuickPork® 1-hour meatlets.
Just one cube grows a full serving right in your tummy!
Re #16, Jeff… very clever. Good one!
Mmmm, pork sushi.
#16. “Petri-bred”
One in the top section looks like a turd.
/can’t fool me
Um, I have doubts about the quality, flavor, and price of lab grown meat anytime in the next 10 years.
I also wonder just how eco friendly this really going to be when you add in all the processing lab type stuff that will be required. This is going to be a chemical plant.
#10 Ah_Yea said,”Bacon every morning would actually be good for you!”
You mean it’s NOT???
# 11 Guyver said, “Why would lab-grown meat be treated any differently than genetically-modified crops?”
For one thing, I assume it’s a cloning procedure, not a gene modification. In fact, it’s not technically even cloning: it’s a tissue culture which just means encouraging a piece of meat to grow into a larger piece of of meat. For another, it’s not going to get blown into a pig in the next field. It will take a massive and environmentally secure lab to grow such cultures. Also they’ll need to be electrically stimulated to contract and relax – sit-ups, if you will – to become muscular and texturally palatable.
The huge expenditure needed to do this on an industrial scale will probably make it much more expensive than real pork. So, like organic foods, many people will buy it to assuage their conscience and make it less frankenfood and more boutique food. All those PETA vegans will begin to enjoy their morning bacon, again. (They probably never stopped – just hid their addiction.)
But don’t worry. Just relax. The good folks at Viridian Dynamics have already tested this and found it wouldn’t work. And that’s that.
That’s a whole suitcase of phallic imagery! But not quite gross enough to make me a vegetarian.
From the article:
Post and his colleagues have so far managed to develop a soggy form of pork and are seeking to improve its texture. “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue,” Post said.
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Doesn’t sound very appetizing so far. I’m afraid deowll and Animby have it right — this will take a LOT of processing to have any taste, especially at first, and will be even more expensive than regular pork. Too bad. With some luck, though, and a lot of research and development, they may be able to turn out a nice low-cholesterol pork tenderloin. M-m-m!