You've heard of lab-grown gemstones. But how would you feel about lab-grown meat? A group of scientists from Eindhoven University in the Netherlands have succeeded in culturing pork in a petri dish. Researchers extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig, then incubated them in a nutrient-rich solution, creating a sticky tissue that's being described as a "soggy form of pork."
There are still challenges to overcome — like how to achieve a firm consistency — but scientists believe an in-vitro meat breakthrough will happen and processed meat products could be manufactured from lab meat in as little as five years.
Cultured meat has the potential to reduce billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted every year by farm animals. PETA even acknowledged, "If meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal, there's no ethical objection." But I disagree. In addition to blurring the lines between natural and artificial, something like cultured pork would complicate the ethics of eating meat, complicate vegetarianism, and create even more meat labeling problems. Would you buy a beaker-bred burger?
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What they grew sounds like it would taste like sh*t, pardon my French. I would not eat something like that in a million years. It's basically generic muscle tissue, but it would have no tone or marbling or texture. If I wanted that, I'd eat an overcooked hotdog.
1Yeah I agree, if right now it has a "soggy texture", I just don't believe they can make it tasty enough to taste like real meat. I'm not even an avid meat-eater, but that sounds gross and the chemistry of it all doesn't sound like it will hold well in cooking.
2What PETA ignores is that the "meat" is (from the article) grown in a "'nutritious 'broth' is derived from the blood products of animal foetuses, although the intention is to come up with a synthetic solution." As a former lab-rat, I can attest that that broth is taken from unanaesthetized, usually cow, fetuses, because the anesthesia might impair cell growth. And that, while there are synthetic growth media available, they're not nearly as good or reliable as the serum from the fetuses -- there are bunches of unknown compounds in the serum vital for cell growth that we don't understand, so we can't yet replicate them. While I'm all for decreasing animal cruelty, lab-grown meat isn't nearly as animal-friendly as it seems, and it probably won't be for a long time.
3Based off of the anonymous commenter's points, if there can ever be a way for this to become a truly ethical alternative to traditional meat-eating, I'd be for it.
4Of course, that could take as long as fifty or more years, so I don't expect to be eating any lab-grown steaks in my lifetime.
If it tastes the same a regular meat I'd give up real meat in an instant... I eat enough artificial junk that artificial meat won't make too much of a difference.
5It is so funny that this is everywhere today. I am currently watching Eureka on netflix and the episode I watched this morning was about lab grown chicken breasts that were making everyone stupid.
Seriously though, not sure how I feel about this, seems like a good thing but also kinda gross.
6I am very much pro cell-cultured meat, and was very excited to hear about this progress. There are natural ways of raising animals and eating meat that I, as a vegetarian, believe are ethical. But the way that factory farmed animals are treated and the impact this practice has on the environment is reprehensible. And for as much meat as Americans want to eat and as little as we want to spend, we are not getting away from factory farming any time soon. I am hopeful that with improvement (synthetic "broth", firmer consistency, etc.), cell-culture meat can take the place of factory farmed meat. And honestly, with what those animals are fed and all of the other engineering that goes into producing the most meat at the lowest cost, I couldn't say that this would feel much less "natural."
7I'm a vegetarian, and I don't know exactly how I feel about lab meat. It sounds weird, but I already eat Morning Star Chik n Nuggets, and sausage links, and those aren't real meat. So I don't know, its possible that I could eat some.
8nope
9In theory, maybe. But I'll definitely have to wait until they get beyond the "soggy pork" stage of development. That just sounds nauseating.
10Just say no to franken-foods. I will be sticking to my local actual-farm raised meats.
11Personally I think people need to eat less food, better quality food, and more natural food. So you can't have steak six times a week? At least you know it wasn't "grown" in a lab full of god-knows-what processing and ingredients.
Think about it, back in the 50's people knew eating a steak was a special event, nowadays you can get steak burgers at McDonalds!
Think more in terms of quality than quantity.
weird and unsettling, but most progress feels that way initially.
12I eat processed foods now, but meat is something I completely avoid, lab grown or not. Bleh.
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