

Bioengineers in the Netherlands are now growing meat in a laboratory - dsil
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/87bf2654-89b3-11e1-85af-00144feab49a.html#axzz1se7I7IYx

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epoxyhockey
I am no vegetarian, but after reading about mechanically separated meat,
washed with ammonia, infused with "flavor," and formed into common products
like pepperoni, I would rather have my low-grade meat be lab-grown.

Reference: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_separated_meat>
[http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/04/whats-the-deal-with-
tu...](http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/04/whats-the-deal-with-tuna-scrape/)

~~~
pavlov
For the past 60 years, when people defended women's rights in smalltalk they
would often start with "I'm no feminist, but..."

Lately I've noticed an increased usage of the phrase "I'm no vegetarian,
but...". Hopefully that's a sign that public awareness of the problems of
industrial meat production may be nearing a critical mass, as eventually
happened with the issues raised by Feminist movements.

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RandallBrown
I can imagine this going over well with people that want to eat meat, but
don't really want to kill animals. I could see them paying twice as much for a
steak produced this way.

Then, as it becomes cheaper and cheaper, it will become the norm for meat.
Eventually "real" meat from animals will be the the luxury item.

~~~
swombat
I would pay twice as much for artificial meat that doesn't involve killing an
animal, in a heartbeat. Being responsible for the deaths (often in abhorrent
circumstances) of so many living creatures is simply difficult to swallow (pun
ftw!). That said, there's a big if:

I would pay twice as much in a heartbeat, so long as the artificial meat
tasted indistinguishable or close enough to the real thing. That means
texture, juiciness, taste, consistency, etc.

I wouldn't pay anything for, for example, quorn.

I'm a meat-eater despite disliking killing so many animals because I love the
taste of meat more than I dislike the killing.

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Confusion
Research and experience show that of all the people who say this (I would pay
X more for animal-friendler meat), few follow through. I pay around 25% more
for meat that is produced with the animals having better lives and the
relative amount of such products available does not line up with the amount of
people that _say_ they would buy it.

~~~
smackay
The full statement is probably "I would pay X more for animal-friendlier meat
if it was sitting next to the animal-unfriendly meat on the supermarket
shelf". Not an indictment per se but it usually takes a lot of work on the
producer and consumer side of the equation to effect real change in people's
habits.

~~~
prodigal_erik
And if someone trustworthy has verified the animal-friendliness, because
otherwise sham self-certification by factory farms is sure to predominate.

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ntkachov
The way we treat our meat we might as well grow it in a lab. I love a good
chicken as much as the next guy, but when you blast it with chemicals, drugs,
and then freeze it for a few days, unfreeze it, freeze it again, and then
finally shove it in my salad it doesn't taste any different than if you grew
it in lab.

At least we can engineer the lab grown stuff to taste good after you beat the
flavor out of it.

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dancesdrunk
A slightly off-topic question this brings up in my mind - considering the
current availability of multivitamin pills, protein + carbohydrate bars /
shakes, various iron/mineral supplements, is it not possible to sustain
yourself using just engineered products? Without having to buy the staple food
we currently do (breads, meats, salads).

From reading the article, it seems we're still a fair bit off lab grown food -
but certainly for future generations it may just be the norm.

~~~
spacemanaki
I am not a nutritionist, but my understanding from reading a bit about it and
from the writings of Michael Pollan and others is that our understanding of
the nutritional needs of humans is pretty rudimentary. There may be (or there
likely are) unforeseen consequences of breaking down food into component
nutrients and consuming a cocktail of pills instead of eating "food, mostly
plants, not too much" as Pollan recommends. Even industrially produced meat
and vegetables may contain things we don't understand and aren't currently
capturing in supplements.

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mkl
With how easy it seems to be to make meat carcinogenic [1][2], I'm going to
wait a while on this one. (Yes, I eat meat, but limit what type and how much.)

[1] <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16526695>

[2] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/cut-red-meat-
can...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/23/cut-red-meat-cancer-
researchers)

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Lost_BiomedE
If lab grown meat, even if at first it is only hamburger, can be economically
viable, then the boon to tissue engineering science could be very big indeed.
There would be much more work done on bioreactors and biomaterials.

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readme
I didn't know Veridian Dynamics set up shop in The Netherlands.

<http://www.movieweb.com/v/VIq12vszWI4Ftx>

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nextparadigms
This is how "starving" will be solved in the future, with much cheaper lab-
brown (replicator-grown?) food.

Of course for the first 2 decades or so it will still be in "beta" mode, and I
wouldn't really want to be one of the early adopters. Hopefully regulators
will monitor the whole situation and force them to put labels on it that
clearly separates it from normal meat.

~~~
joedevon
"Hopefully regulators will monitor the whole situation"

Which of course, they won't.

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Shenglong
I'm excited about this, but there really needs to be societal consideration
here. While I'm all for eating whatever tastes good, many of my meat-eating
friends are grossed out even when they think about how regular meat is
procured. I don't want to think how they'll react to test tube meat.

Then again, the next generation won't know anything else.

~~~
maxerickson
What's the consideration you speak of? I don't really see any reason to keep
people comfortably separate from the production of their food.

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ximeng
"Vrandin, the new near meat will bring about a higher culture in the butcher
fraternity" [1913]

[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19130331&...](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19130331&id=-M0zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QPQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5145,2823878)

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rabidsnail
Deja Vu: [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-
videos/22197...](http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-
videos/221975/march-17-2009/world-of-nahlej---shmeat)

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GlennS
I think that it is the wrong approach to try to make lab grown meat taste
indistinguishable from real meat.

Instead, they should aim to make it taste better than real meat.

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sodiumphosphate
Entomophagy.

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electromagnetic
Oh yay, they've finally found a way of over processing meat, the only thing
that was still hard to over process.

~~~
mistercow
What do you mean by "over process"?

