test tube meat?

[timouse]

from today's Globe and Mail:

Will consumers have a beef with test-tube meat?

ANNE MCILROY

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Scientists can grow frog and mouse meat in the lab, and are now working on pork, beef and chicken. Their goal is to develop an industrial version of the process in five years.

If they succeed, cultured or in vitro meat could be coming to a supermarket near you. Consumers could buy hamburger patties and chicken nuggets made from meat cultivated from muscle cells in a giant incubator rather than cut from a farm animal.

Home chefs could make meat in a countertop device the size of a coffee maker. Before bed, throw starter cells and a package of growth medium into the meat maker and wake up to harvest fresh sausage for breakfast.

duscuss.

[bouche]

I think these asshole scientists have forgotten that meat on the bone is the way to go. How am I supposed to grill up a nice rib steak from a test tube?

[Tooly]

very fucked.

i would never buy that crap

[Birdy]

seconded.

[StaggerLee]

I can't imagine this is anywhere near being economically feasable for general consumption. I wonder if cultured meat could be considered vegetarian as it wouldn't really classify as being from a living organism (except for a few initial sample cells).

[Im going home Donny]

Not sure how I feel about this one. Sure sounds strange but if it cuts down on animal cruelty, factory farming, rain forests being decimated for hamburgers et.. well mabey it aint so bad...now to clean up those soya crops.....hmmm...humans are fucking weird man.... :crazy:

[Im going home Donny]

I can't imagine this is anywhere near being economically feasable for general consumption. I wonder if cultured meat could be considered vegetarian as it wouldn't really classify as being from a living organism (except for a few initial sample cells).

yeah thats what I'm trying to wrap my brain around...the veggi thing...guess it depends on why one is veggi....ahhh weird beans.

[payce-ley]

only thing humane about meat is when the animal is killed its put out of its miserable existence

if I have the choice (and it doesn't taste like crap or have loads of chemical additives and steroids, like meat does) I'll take the test tube version

[Baj]

gives a whole new meaning the the ol "tube steak"

[payce-ley]

lol

[questcequecest?]

Home chefs could make meat in a countertop device the size of a coffee maker. Before bed, throw starter cells and a package of growth medium into the meat maker and wake up to harvest fresh sausage for breakfast.

hahahhaa, i love it! let's start the conoisseurs' magazine already... "Meat Times"

oooh, the centerfolds (droool)

[Alexis]

i think this is great. think of all the 3rd world countries that could benefit from this. peoples whose land is too arid to sustain growth and thus animals could have an excellent source of protein for their diets...not that man juice isn't a good source, but let's get a grip on population control people.

this does seem a bit star treky to me, and i'm sure 5 years probably isn't a feasable time line, but i can see this being a "norm" within our lifetimes.

think of how land use would be completely different....the possibilities are endless.

[timouse]

i think this is great. think of all the 3rd world countries that could benefit from this. peoples whose land is too arid to sustain growth and thus animals could have an excellent source of protein for their diets...not that man juice isn't a good source, but let's get a grip on population control people.

this does seem a bit star treky to me, and i'm sure 5 years probably isn't a feasable time line, but i can see this being a "norm" within our lifetimes.

think of how land use would be completely different....the possibilities are endless.

i agree with the last statement, if an alternate source of protein appeard on the scene that required less than 1 kcal of energy input for every 1kcal of food energy, that would change a lot in the world food system...but there are so many reasons that this is the wrong approach. if you are what you eat, i don't want to be an amorphous blob of meat

the world's food problems are not a supply problem as much as they are a distribution problem. the World Bank and the IMF encouraged so many countries in the developing world to grow crops for export and to embrace the "green revolution" in agriculture (monocropping, "terminator" seed, pesticide & fertilizer input, basically Moinsanto's product line...). this has mostly screwed these countries, with the exception of those places that have given up on the green revolution and gone back to traditional farming methods and seed saving.

add to that the political dimension...many starving people have their access to food & water blocked by civil war and corruption. (i can just see the appeals for donation now..."your $50 will bribe four sudanese customs officials and allow the relief shipments to reach their intended recipients.")

and alexis, please don't think that i'm shooting your argument down...raising animals for meat is horribly inneficient and largely inhumae. my friend iliana will not eat bacon any more after a harrowing morning in traffic stuck next to a pig truck full of sad-eyed pigs who obviously knew something about where they were headed this specific approach just gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies...

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

What in the Christ does this do but line the pockets of the scientists who came up with it? I thought the whole point of eating meat was knowing that the animal you were mowing down on had been slaughtered by other humans, in homage to all that hunting we used to do together. Now all we get is supermarkets; what are we supposed to do with that murderous blood lust?

Ok, I'm being a bit facetious - I do appreciate the fact that people like the taste of different meats - but this isn't about nutrition per se; millions of people do survive quite well and live long lives on more or less simple diets, combinations of grains and proteins like rice + lentils or beans, and the taste of those can be taken to any number of heights. There's nothing altruistic about this science, except as an afterthought to the abstract sense of power that this thing gives some people.

I remember Jeremy Rifkin saying that the revolution in genetics that has started in the last little while is on par - i.e. has similarly intense repercussions - with the discovery of fire. I think he's right. We don't know what we're doing, any more than the first dude who set flint to tinder envisioned the neutron bomb.

[Im going home Donny]

apart from avoiding nuclear war I tend to think the biggest thing humans need to be concerned about right now is WATER.

Strange some of the shit scientists do.... :crazy:

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I think you're spot on, Howler. It's always the simplest of oversights that fuck us up. What is more essential, or simpler, than H2O?

[Im going home Donny]

I know I'm straying from test tube meat but the water stuff has me freaked large.

I do belive water is what humans will be warring over large in the not too distant future.

Right now the ammount of people without access to clean water is deplorable.

On the CBC the other day I was listening to how Canada has finnally come up with some kind of agreement-plan to give native reserves access to clean drinking water......WHAT THE FUCK....its 2006 and they are only NOW entering a world with clean drinking water....holy nasty racist beans batman. Canada aint as cool as we like to think...I think.

Same goes for loads of communities in the United States....no clean drinking water....WOW!

And of coarse third world countries......google world fresh water crisis....its astounding.

anyways...scuse me...back to test tube meat.

[Calamity Jane]

google world fresh water crisis....its astounding.

anyways...scuse me...back to test tube meat.

in an attempt to tie the 2 together.....I support this bizarre scientific endeavour, if only for the hope that 'growing' meat in this way would reduce the huge amount of water used in traditional-factory-farming of animals AND reduce the huge amount of poo- and chemical-laden waste water generated.

People are so far removed from their food-sources at this point anyway.....and (remember the recent SPAM thread?) lotsa people already eat a "form" of meat from a can, so this cultivated meat may indeed be readily embraced by consumers..... As a veg, though, I still wouldn't eat it, simply b/c meat turns my stomach on a purely psychological-physiological level.

Talk about the bizzare implications of this field of research though.....

"It would look like a coffee maker -- this is my dream," he [Mironov] said wistfully. "No one wants to fund it."

One group, which he would not name, did offer him money, but they wanted him to grow meat from human cells, so they could grow pieces of themselves to eat.

"I don't want to participate in high-tech human cannibalism," he said he told them.

any guesses....? The Raelians maybe?

there Tim, did I do a good job duscussing it? That was my first time duscussing anything, so I was a little nervous.

[Bennyd]

embrace the "green revolution" in agriculture (monocropping, "terminator" seed, pesticide & fertilizer input, basically Moinsanto's product line...).

FYI terminator seeds are not part of the "Green Revolution", they are more a product of biotech, and have been miss construed by most people. Currently farmers plant 95% hybrid seeds that require them to by new seeds every year any way. Terrminator seeds if ever developed (no sucessful attempts to date, monsanto has even abandoned the technology) would be a efective way to prevent gene flow into non target species. If we had terminator seeds for canola the chance of random herbicid tollerent weeds and volonterrs (plants that come up the next year in a new rotated crop) would be solved. We all eat GM foods on a regular basis 70% of soy, 60% of yellow corn and 50% of the cotton underwear youve got on.

on the meat tip

Some biological engineers I have spoken to do not feel this method will be here anytime soon. due to the inconsistancy in the texture, and if at all it would be test tube fish on our plates first.

[Im going home Donny]

Calamity Jane said "Poo and chemically laden wasted water"

yummers! Lets Bottle that swill baby! We can market it in China as the 'All American Energy Spritzer'....wheres that Sloganizer page...lets make some monies. :crazy:

[timouse]

Talk about the bizzare implications of this field of research though.....

"It would look like a coffee maker -- this is my dream," he [Mironov] said wistfully. "No one wants to fund it."

One group, which he would not name, did offer him money, but they wanted him to grow meat from human cells, so they could grow pieces of themselves to eat.

"I don't want to participate in high-tech human cannibalism," he said he told them.

any guesses....? The Raelians maybe?

there Tim, did I do a good job duscussing it? That was my first time duscussing anything, so I was a little nervous.

the bit about the people who wanted human cells was the first thing that niffer picked up on too...ewwww~!

[timouse]

embrace the "green revolution" in agriculture (monocropping' date=' "terminator" seed, pesticide & fertilizer input, basically Moinsanto's product line...).[/quote']

FYI terminator seeds are not part of the "Green Revolution", they are more a product of biotech, and have been miss construed by most people. Currently farmers plant 95% hybrid seeds that require them to by new seeds every year any way. Terrminator seeds if ever developed (no sucessful attempts to date, monsanto has even abandoned the technology) would be a efective way to prevent gene flow into non target species. If we had terminator seeds for canola the chance of random herbicid tollerent weeds and volonterrs (plants that come up the next year in a new rotated crop) would be solved. We all eat GM foods on a regular basis 70% of soy, 60% of yellow corn and 50% of the cotton underwear youve got on.

on the meat tip

Some biological engineers I have spoken to do not feel this method will be here anytime soon. due to the inconsistancy in the texture, and if at all it would be test tube fish on our plates first.

sorry, benny, you're absolutely right, i shouldn't have lumped monsatan in with the green revolution. and i appreciate what you said about terminator seed preventing gene migration...it's ironic that the terminator concept, which in a natural context is pretty abhorrent, seems to have been meant to address gene drift while at the same time creating lifelong monsanto customers. vandana shiva rants extensively about the effects of the biotech industry on india, and specifically engineered seed...and you're right on too about the amount of GMO out there already. the tofu in my lunch and the cotton in my underpants are likely both GMO

[Calamity Jane]

yummers! Lets Bottle that swill baby! We can market it in China as the 'All American Energy Spritzer'....wheres that Sloganizer page...lets make some monies. :crazy:

okay...how're these?

«You wouldn't want to miss All American Energy Spritzer!»

«Stay cool with All American Energy Spritzer.»

«You don't want All American Energy Spritzer as your enemy!»

«All American Energy Spritzer - enjoy the difference.»

«Oh my gods, it's a All American Energy Spritzer.»

[mattm]

A lot of people eat mcdonalds and shit from those type food chains. They wouldn't even have to change their slogans to use this fake meat. Is there even real meat in the old fast food products (I'm generalizing here, I realize there are some that offer actual meat)? Chicken mcnuggets sure look like chicken but I think the texture is fake (not sure but something tells me).

[Im going home Donny]

yummers! Lets Bottle that swill baby! We can market it in China as the 'All American Energy Spritzer'....wheres that Sloganizer page...lets make some monies. :crazy:

okay...how're these?

«You wouldn't want to miss All American Energy Spritzer!»

«Stay cool with All American Energy Spritzer.»

«You don't want All American Energy Spritzer as your enemy!»

«All American Energy Spritzer - enjoy the difference.»

«Oh my gods' date=' it's a All American Energy Spritzer.»[/quote']

yoohoo!!! Lets get RICH mamma!

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