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Would you eat meat that was grown in a test tube?
In 1932, Winston Churchill wrote, "Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." Today Scientists in Holland are trying to create Pork in a laboratory.
It may have environmental, ethical and economic benefits.... but would YOU actually eat it?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2441575238_f5eec480a7.jpg
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-pork
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It may have environmental, ethical and economic benefits.... but would YOU actually eat it?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-pork
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October 17, 2009 07:18 AM
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Yes, I would.
Part of my growing up was on a mixed farm, which means we raised and butchered our own meat, but over the last 20 years family farms have been taken over by factory farms, and I've visited a couple, and I hate them.
I studied enough cell biology and comparative mammalian physiology in university to know that if we're going to go factory with our meats, then we should go all the way, and cultivate just the tissues we eat.
It would be cheaper, because it would use fewer nutrients and less energy because all the nutrients would go to the food itself instead of all those other parts of the animal that we don't use, it would make for safer food, because we could cultivate the tissue in sterile environments so we wouldn't have to crank it full of antibiotics which leads to antibiotic resistant bacteria, and it's more humane, because we wouldn't be cultivating nerve tissue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEkc70ztOrc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X_eYvg1sd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-6Up9fl38
Part of my growing up was on a mixed farm, which means we raised and butchered our own meat, but over the last 20 years family farms have been taken over by factory farms, and I've visited a couple, and I hate them.
I studied enough cell biology and comparative mammalian physiology in university to know that if we're going to go factory with our meats, then we should go all the way, and cultivate just the tissues we eat.
It would be cheaper, because it would use fewer nutrients and less energy because all the nutrients would go to the food itself instead of all those other parts of the animal that we don't use, it would make for safer food, because we could cultivate the tissue in sterile environments so we wouldn't have to crank it full of antibiotics which leads to antibiotic resistant bacteria, and it's more humane, because we wouldn't be cultivating nerve tissue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEkc70ztOrc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X_eYvg1sd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-6Up9fl38
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October 16, 2009 08:28 PM
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I suppose if a person grew up from childhood with that being the normal and common thing, he or she might not think twice about it.
What I do know is that the first thing that came to my mind was the Better Off Ted episode called "Heroes" in which the lab guys are trying to grow cow-less meat:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2009/03/better-off-ted-recap-heroes/
Phil: Blobby, like Bobby, only with an l
Lem: Don't name it or you won't want to eat it. Remember Chester the carrot?
Phil: Yeah, I miss him
Ha!
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What I do know is that the first thing that came to my mind was the Better Off Ted episode called "Heroes" in which the lab guys are trying to grow cow-less meat:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2009/03/better-off-ted-recap-heroes/
Phil: Blobby, like Bobby, only with an l
Lem: Don't name it or you won't want to eat it. Remember Chester the carrot?
Phil: Yeah, I miss him
Ha!
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October 16, 2009 10:57 PM
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1098
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/invitro_meat Helpful Answer? (0)
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Absolutely! Not a problem...
The idea is fine, we use bacteria and chemicals and new science to modify our food now... what's a test tube after all that :)
I know the problem they have is making it feel like meat..At the moment the sheets they create don't have much structure and they know the sensation or texture of grown meat is important to market it so they are trying things like adding an electrical current through the growing meat to help it form fibers like real meat and using different types of cells like muscle and fat
...pretty cool I think.
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The idea is fine, we use bacteria and chemicals and new science to modify our food now... what's a test tube after all that :)
I know the problem they have is making it feel like meat..At the moment the sheets they create don't have much structure and they know the sensation or texture of grown meat is important to market it so they are trying things like adding an electrical current through the growing meat to help it form fibers like real meat and using different types of cells like muscle and fat
...pretty cool I think.
http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1098
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/invitro_meat Helpful Answer?
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October 17, 2009 06:52 AM
If I ate meat? I would too. But part of the experience (chemical reactions) of eating meat that we are used to now incorporate hormones, uric acid & adrenaline in the blood, even blood itself, etc. Taking that out will change how our bodies react, even our taste buds. So it would be odd to say the least.
Funny how people are against public acts of cruelty to animals, but as long as it's hidden behind slaughterhouse walls it's okay. I don't care about the animals themselves. I'm more concerned with the psychology of the persons who slaughter or profit from it.
If someone wants to eat a dead animal they should kill and prep it themselves, not hire a killer to do it for them. If you can't stomach the act itself, maybe a "bad hunter" (aka vegetarian) lifestyle makes more sense now.
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Funny how people are against public acts of cruelty to animals, but as long as it's hidden behind slaughterhouse walls it's okay. I don't care about the animals themselves. I'm more concerned with the psychology of the persons who slaughter or profit from it.
If someone wants to eat a dead animal they should kill and prep it themselves, not hire a killer to do it for them. If you can't stomach the act itself, maybe a "bad hunter" (aka vegetarian) lifestyle makes more sense now.
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