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Scientists attempt to grow meat in a lab
What do you think — meat grows on trees? Maybe not, but how about in Petri dishes? Scientists in the Netherlands and the United States are working (separately) to create edible meat in the lab from animal stem cells. The U.S. is focusing on developing the technology for astronauts, while the Dutch are more ambitious: They'd like to replace the animals raised in farms with flesh that can be grown without any of the environmental downsides and ethical dilemmas that arise from keeping livestock. Think of all the vegans who could start eating meat again without any guilt! True, if we stop raising cows and pigs, Vermonters won't be able to power their homes on cow dung, but that seems a small price to pay if the synthetic meat can benefit the environment on a larger scale.
The scientists working on the project have grown only thin layers of meat cells so far, so Easter hams will be some years away. But the success of the project would bring up a thornier question: Which would you rather eat — meat grown in a lab, or Spam?
Reuters, via Treehugger
By BioTube at 8:43 PM ON 06/04/07
Lab meat or spam... what a choice. They should also try and grow veggies and other animal products this way. Some of the major obstacles to space colonies are related to farming. But if a colony could produce all its food in a lab, it would greatly increase the chances of humanity settling the stars within our lifetimes. We could also use such technology to help fight world hunger. In this case, growing large, complex meat structures wouldn't be too vital - we could just grind a large number of meatskins into a meat paste to feed the hungry, even if we can never grow veggies like this.
By hydrohead at 8:40 AM ON 06/07/07
What are these "environmental downsides and ethical dilemmas that arise from keeping livestock" that they refer too? You would think that after 10k years, those would have come up and caused us problems by now.
And where is the fat? I like my steak well marbled.
By dragonhung at 11:34 AM ON 06/07/07
If they can get the meat to work, maybe they can get the digestive system to work and the Dutch will have all the "fuel" they need!
By DavemanXP at 12:10 PM ON 06/07/07
Why is it I picture in the year 2025 these people dying the product green color, diced up in wafer slabs and dubbing these delectables, "Soilent Green" Charlton Heston! Save us now!!
By mmyers46 at 2:23 PM ON 06/07/07
"What are these 'environmental downsides and ethical dilemmas that arise from keeping livestock' that they refer too?"
1. The run-off from livestock farms is a major cause of pollution of waterways and ground water.
2. It takes ten pound of vegetation, usually grown with artificial fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, to produce one pound of meat for the table. When people are starving in the world, it's hard to justify feeding animals rather than people.
3. Some people think it's inhumane to raise livestock to be killed and eaten.
4. More people think it's inhumane to raise livestock under the deplorable conditions that make factory farming so profitable for the giant corporations that control our food supply.
By zushiba at 9:07 PM ON 06/07/07
I beg to differ on the point of Vermont's cow-dung power plant, if we aren't eating cows it opens them up to a whole new world of exploitation. That being raised in comfort and given cheap food to produce cheaper energy.
By spacecoonass at 11:11 AM ON 06/08/07
Has anyone besides me noticed the upside of this story?
"Meat" is muscle tissue - an organ system.
If we can grow meat in vitro then we can also grow other organs that way. Livers, hearts, eyes, lungs, kidneys... right about the same time we're growing steaks to order, we'll be able to grow vital organs to order in the same way.
Slightly more important, wouldn't you say?
By quickjman at 3:13 PM ON 06/24/07
i dont care if we dont have norm food i say if this works give me my Soilent Green with extra poor people and if we can grow organs it woud stop the kidney hiest so the only down side is that we would still be killing animals because it requires stem cell and trhey did metion what type so it's probly embreo but still a good idea if only we could clone stem cells
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i dont care if we dont have norm food i say if this works give me my Soilent Green with extra poor people and if we...More »