You’ll want to sit down for this one.
It appears that Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have some real competition coming down the pike.
Artificial lab meat is now being “grown” from pig stem cells fed with fetal horse serum.
Scientists in the Netherlands are indeed on the cusp of developing “slaughter-free” meat produced solely in a lab environment. One expert went so far as to predict that the first stem cell sausage could be available within 6 months.
Dr. Mark Post of Maastricht University said, “I’m hopeful we can have a hamburger in a year.”
The biggest problem scientists are dealing with right now is that lab meat is white due to the lack of myoglobin, the iron carrying blood protein that gives meat its color.
Dr. Post said that scientists are working on ways to build up the myoglobin in the synthetic meat to give it more color and hence be more appetizing to consumers. In short, the vegan alternative to gassing meat in supermarkets to keep it perpetually red!
Farmers do not appear threatened by this new development – at least not yet.
A spokesperson for the Cattle Council of Australia said the large amount of FrankenMeat that would need to be produced and the difficulty in doing so on a mass scale precludes any competition for the foreseeable future.
You can be sure when mass production of lab meat does become financially viable, fast food chains will be all over it. They’ve already shown themselves to be more than willing to partially substitute cheap, MSG laced soy protein as a filler for conventional beef to cut costs.
The real question, however, seems to be:Â will vegetarians eat it? Since they already gobble up edamame misguidedly thinking it’s a vegetable, the chances are probably pretty good.
gross! Now we can truly say, “Where’s the beef?”
I think I threw up in my mouth a llittle..
I definitely threw up in mine a little
The report I saw said 15-20 years to ensure safety… Although goodness only knows how this would remotely be considered “safe”
None for me, thanks though! Move Over Soy Protein: Lab Meat on the Horizon – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/kVo5sQp
I have to say that this is the grossest thing I have read in a while. I just don’t understand why you would even take the time and money for a project like this. Thanks for sharing.
I agree. We’ll all have to watch out for labeling shenanigans with stuff like this too once it gets loose in the processed food world. Not that any of us eat much of that anyway
This vegetarian would never eat this fake meat. Just the thought of it makes me sick.
I was eating breakfast as I read this, thankful that the locally raised, apple Gouda chicken sausage I am enjoying was made the old fashion way — by killing a chicken. This is disturbing…once again, man’s attempt to be his own god and ignore what has already been provided. Ugh.
Disgusting. And sad. I would love to say something like, “Oh, this will never fly.” But I can’t….
Just – Eeeeewwwww!!! It’s hard to believe that people really think this is a GOOD idea?!!
If vegetarians eat meat, they aren’t vegetarians. Oh, and fish is meat.
Kristen at Food Renegade recently did a story on Japanese researchers making recycled meat out of feces. There were a number of little details or missing bits of information that raised various warning flags for me, and made me think it was a hoax. Kristen promised to get to the bottom of it, but it’s been over two months and I haven’t seen any follow up. Hoping more eyeballs can make light work of the needed research.
PS: The anti-meat, pro-grain lobbyists have reached the desperate fighting stage:
Sorry, here’s the link to the Food Renegade story on fecal meat:
http://www.foodrenegade.com/scientists-create-meat-out-of-feces/
Vegetarians’ main reason for not eating meat is that it is unethical due to slaughtering of animals. When you remove the slaughtering, you are removing their objection to eating it which is why my thought is that at least some vegetarians will eat it.