Would You Try Meat Grown in a Lab?
By: Tanya Jolliffe,
SparkPeople Blogger
3/5/2012 10:00 AM
: 51 comments
: 5,467 Views
Over thirty years ago, advances in technology created the first test tube baby. Twenty years later continued advancements introduced the world to Dolly the first cloned mammal. A decade later, the FDA declared that genetically engineered foods were "not inherently dangerous" and would not require special regulations.
As controversial as these technological advancements may have been, they may be nothing compared to what scientists in the Netherlands are working to create in a test tube now.
The demand for beef around the world has increased. At the same time, food prices are on the rise. The price of beef has increased continually over the last decade and skyrocketed over the last two years, which makes economic sense given the increased demand. In an attempt to identify alternatives, Professor Mark Post at Maastricht University has decided to create the first lab-grown hamburger.
Scientists believe lab grown meat help places like Asia and Africa where conventional livestock production is limited. A private donor is so convinced that lab-grown meat could revolutionize the food industry, they have anonymously provided $330,000 to fund the project. If all goes well, the first test tube burger could arrive in October. Here is more about this new ground breaking initiative.
What do you think about this new technology? Would you eat a lab-grown burger?
Would you try "test-tube beef"?
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Comments
Protein is protein, why not try it if I know it was produced in healthy conditions?
If FDA approves, I'm sure it is healthy and safe.
But I would prefer to try it in a blinded setting, so that I don't know it is lab grown, so that my preconceptions do not bias me.
It is not the taste but the texture of natural meat which I think is hard to reproduce.
In her wonderful book That Old Ace in the Hole, Annie Proulx writes about hog farms but I guess the process is similar for other animals, and the damage to environment is the same.
Imagine how most of natural meat is made, and lab grown meat seems more appealing. - 3/9/2012 6:00:16 AM
We seem to be getting more than we bargained for these days with food. - 3/8/2012 1:48:26 PM
Avoid meat? not me....and natural organic vegetables are not any safer. e-coli, other bacteria. Living is dangerous. If lab meat is cheaper, cleaner, why not?
- 3/5/2012 3:13:12 PM
Seriously. Think of what "natural" meat entails:
- 1000 calories in plant (often grains) to get 100 calories worth of meat, with all the cost for the environment that goes into harvesting, storing, transporting the fodder.
- Scares and scandals about the health risks connected with meat gone bad or containing either some infection or the medications/hormones/other fun stuff the animals were treated with.
- Ethical considerations of how animals live and the fact that we kill them. Yep, the latter bit has been done for a long time. Raising animals in better shoe-boxes and the effects that has on their health, neccessity for medications and so on are not.
- You think test-tube meat is icky? I can understand that; it sounds a bit icky and probably doesn't look any better, either. Then again: There's a reason MacDonalds doesn't put images of cows being slaughtered and drawn on their place mats. It's not such a pretty process, either, even if the, well, unhygenical bits of the animal (think lower intestines) aren't being removed by some tired worker on a piecework wage.
Don't get me wrong: I love eating "natural" food, meaning no mono sodium glutamate, nothing from genetically altered plants or animals, fair trade chocolae and coffee and, if possible, locally grown food.
But we all know by now that eating a big serving of meat once a day is not natural, nor is eating at McDonalds or KFC. And eating vegetables imported from 500 miles away or even from half-way round the globe isn't either!
The main influence for me would really be not having to worry about how an animal had to live and what effects factory farming has on the environment and on the shortness of food in some parts of this world. The health concerns at least only screw me over, and then it was my decision to eat the meat to begin with. Right now I'm eating meat _maybe_ once a week, and then small servings like a slice of ham on a sandwich. And I really like meat!
I'd love to have "test-tube meat" available. - 3/5/2012 2:15:43 PM
For me, the closer my food (all of it) is locally grown, the safer I feel. - 3/5/2012 1:09:41 PM
But then again, I am extremely open-minded when it comes to food and will try just about anything. I carry more of a "eat now, ask questions later" kind of 'tude. ;-) - 3/5/2012 1:03:06 PM
1.Just the thought turns my stomach. However, since I know there is probably no stopping them, they should be legally required to label foods that are modified any anyway-this includes using meat glue (gag)
2. More importantly, our fast food culture has programmed us to look at cheap food as better somehow. However, we do not fully understand the complexity of how our bodies and the plants and animals we eat interact. For example there are alot of vitamins that need fat to become soluable. No matter how hard we try to add essential nutrients to the foods we eat, it will never be as nutritious and healthy as naturally, minimally processed foods are. For the first time in history we have a significant number of people that are getting fatter AND more malnurished at the same time.
3. Instead of producing more meat why don't we incorporate different kinds of proteins into our diet (beans, nuts, tofu, etc). Or, stretch our meat consumption by eating smaller portions of it and filling in the rest with good freggies or by cutting it up and eating it in stir-frys.
We are only given the bodies that we have, we should give them the love that they deserve. :) - 3/5/2012 12:39:33 PM
Becca315 - 3/5/2012 12:24:39 PM
- 3/5/2012 12:00:18 PM
Since I can't post a link, feel free to look it up. :) youtube.com/watch?v=1EIzCgZ-ypA
- 3/5/2012 11:45:19 AM
P.S. - Even when we go vegetarian, or vegan, then we have to fight the battle against corporate agriculture and their "genetically modified organisms". Since (at least) the late 20th century, the crap never ends!!!! Stop playing Frankenstein. (Or GOD.) - 3/5/2012 11:25:43 AM
Now, I rarely eat full portions of anything: I can make a four portion product into 7, 8 or 9 - and if I got it on sale, AND with a coupon, it becomes almost affordable. I eat more chicken than meat now (it is cheaper); also swai fish (the best deal in our supermarket, although I never heard of it before I saw a sale on it and tried it.)
Unfortunately, when they come up with something new, it usually costs more, not less. I desperately try to eat healthy - which is why I very rarely reach 1200 calories a day. ALL extras are long gone from my diet. I hope that when they introduce this, they offer bargains on it for a while - maybe even free samples. If so, I'd be first to get it! - 3/5/2012 11:07:07 AM
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