Blog

Given that good meat will require a solid framework to grow against, a steady supply of nutrients and oxygen, regular exercise to create density and an immune system to fight infection… losing the animal seems rather counter-productive.

Insert reference to spherical cow here.

No reason that you need cloned meat for chicken sashimi. It’s a fairly common dish on restaurant menus here in Japan already.

Not my favorite dish by any means, but it doesn’t seem to kill many people here.

Mark – I actually thought of it as an example because I’d heard of it in Japan, but I’d assumed it was really rare. Interesting to hear it’s that common – heavy antibiotic use or really good butchery practise, I wonder?

Ashley – I know vegetarians and vegans who are concerned with animal suffering, but I also know people who don’t eat meat on religious grounds (I believe Buddhism bans it) and people who just don’t like the stuff or have medical problems with eating it (as most people who haven’t eaten meat for a long time will do, if they suddenly start). It’s going to be interesting…

It might be possible to culture a mix of cells together to make a mixed meat. Say Chicken and some sort of edible lizard to make Cockatrice.

Though what the point would be. Most people tend to say that unusual meat tastes ‘A bit like Chicken’:)

Thinking about it though it’s the body of a Rooster and Lizards tail. So the front end of a Cockatrice would definitely taste like Chicken. The back end would taste of Lizard, which probably tastes a bit like Chicken :)

Surely Unicorn tastes just like Horse?

I wonder how many people will react against it based on the good old Appeal to Nature argument. It’ll be interesting to watch the moral ground shift as the prices and quality start to cross over.

I want me steak.

Dougal: Just because all these things are neccessary for the current method of meat production, doesn’t mean that they’re neccessary for all methods.

@SpudTater:

Given that there seems to be no real information on in vitro meat production, I’m not sure how you can be so confident. The little data available (eg, <http://invitromeat.org>) suggest the “meat” produced is exactly as described: a textureless protein lump. Presumably closer to tofu than fillet steak.

If wishes were in vitro horsemeat, etc.

@Hugh: Buddhism doesn’t ban anything. People are free to eat as much meat as they like, it’s just not considered wholesome as it encourages the killing of animals. I suspect I will one day become vegetarian for that very reason, though not quite just yet.

As for the post itself, if there is a “clean” way of mass-producing synthesized meats to a quality similar in taste and consistency as animal by-products then it might actually help out if that means reductions in mass farming, especially cattle which does produce an awful lot of Methane.

And it would be funny to read “no animals were harmed in the production of this steak” ;)

The “In vitro meat consortium” was established in 2007:

http://www.invitromeat.org/

Their mission is to be:

“…an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large-scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding to fuel these efforts”

Entertaining post, but I will tell you right now in vitro grown meat is not going to go over well.

First of all, there is the issue with taste. Just because it looks like a lump of beef doesn’t mean it will taste like one. Does a hormone injected cow grown in a barn taste like a pasture raised cow? I suppose flavor additives can be added to make faux steak taste like real steak…

Second, vat grown meat will not be any safer than natural meat. E. coli and many of those nasty types love cell cultures! They love those warm, moist environments. 100% sterility can never be achieved, certainly not without antibiotics. Throw in some hormones for better growth, and you’ve basically got the American beef industry right there!

Besides, real vegans can’t eat cloned, vat grown meat. The original source has to come from animals (yes, more than one), and there has to be a lot of starting material. Those guys won’t even eat honey, I don’t see how cloned meat would be any different.

@SpudTater:

Your initial comment was essentially “I can’t see how to do it, therefore I regard it as impossible”, which is a sentiment repugnant to me.

Utter nonsense.

If I’d said “how do toilets work?” would you think I was denying the existence of modern plumbing?!

I don’t care about technologies that don’t exist yet. They’ll arrive in their own sweet time. My original question was about the technologies that exist now - specifically, what are they?

This comment appears to be spam and has been blocked. If you believe this is in error, please contact info [at] kamikazecookery.com