Lab Meat
“If your ballpark burger were grown in a petri dish, would you eat it?”
The latest research has produced edible burgers from bovine muscle "seed" cells, though they're nothing to cheer about, apparently. Ironically, it's harder to lab-produce fat than the muscle. Maybe the London sewer could help them out there -- as if the thought of lab-grown meat hadn't already turned your stomach.
Cultured meat products are something that's going to happen at some point in the future. Whether you think that's bad or good is largely a matter of perspective.
The biggest issue I see is not technical or social but ecologic and economic: there is an enormous industry built around meat production. There are entire species which exist in vast -- VAST -- numbers for which humans are the only realistic control predators. Regardless of what the delusional morons at PETA may think, you can't simply switch from live meat production to lab production with the flip of a switch, even if it becomes technologically feasible. We'd be overrun with cows, chickens, etc., and the food chain would go berserk as other predatory species swelled rapidly with the increased food supply, resulting in ecologic chaos.
Additionally, the economic impact would be literally incalculable; entire industries would go under. You cannot just tell millions of ranchers, farmers and fisherman that they have to go find something else to do for a living. It seems that easy to PETA, I'm sure, but they aren't very bright people.
The reality is likely to be a gradual "phasing-in" of cultured meat products over the next half-century. Which makes me somewhat blasé about the whole thing, in that I won't be around to see the completion of this dubious change. While I can accept the reality of it, and even the inevitability of it, that doesn't make it any more palatable to me. Cows and chickens is for eatin', and that's an end to it as far as I'm concerned. Also, I suspect the whitecoats will encounter significantly larger obstacles in trying to replicate an egg than they will a chicken breast -- and breakfast without eggs is something I don't care to contemplate.
The latest research has produced edible burgers from bovine muscle "seed" cells, though they're nothing to cheer about, apparently. Ironically, it's harder to lab-produce fat than the muscle. Maybe the London sewer could help them out there -- as if the thought of lab-grown meat hadn't already turned your stomach.
Cultured meat products are something that's going to happen at some point in the future. Whether you think that's bad or good is largely a matter of perspective.
The biggest issue I see is not technical or social but ecologic and economic: there is an enormous industry built around meat production. There are entire species which exist in vast -- VAST -- numbers for which humans are the only realistic control predators. Regardless of what the delusional morons at PETA may think, you can't simply switch from live meat production to lab production with the flip of a switch, even if it becomes technologically feasible. We'd be overrun with cows, chickens, etc., and the food chain would go berserk as other predatory species swelled rapidly with the increased food supply, resulting in ecologic chaos.
Additionally, the economic impact would be literally incalculable; entire industries would go under. You cannot just tell millions of ranchers, farmers and fisherman that they have to go find something else to do for a living. It seems that easy to PETA, I'm sure, but they aren't very bright people.
The reality is likely to be a gradual "phasing-in" of cultured meat products over the next half-century. Which makes me somewhat blasé about the whole thing, in that I won't be around to see the completion of this dubious change. While I can accept the reality of it, and even the inevitability of it, that doesn't make it any more palatable to me. Cows and chickens is for eatin', and that's an end to it as far as I'm concerned. Also, I suspect the whitecoats will encounter significantly larger obstacles in trying to replicate an egg than they will a chicken breast -- and breakfast without eggs is something I don't care to contemplate.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 16:17
3 Comments:
Just another way to get the human race totally dependent on the government or corporations. The individual wanting to go off grid can raise a cow, goat or chicken, but can't manufacture cultured meat.
Introducing the MeatMaster3000 home meat machine by RonCo. The MeatMaster3000 is built using the latest in meat technology, and so simple even grandma can use it. All you do is pour in a packet of RonCo SeedCells, add water, set your meat selector and wait 45 minutes.
For fine dining you can get the SteakMaster 3000, or RonCo Baconator for a hearty breakfast. But wait...theres more.....
Baconator?! Okay, now you have my attention. =D
Post a Comment
<< Home