Ok, an answer for vegetarians AND meat eaters

[johnnie]

Burgers from a lab? US study says it's possible

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Laboratories using new tissue engineering technology might be able to produce meat that is healthier for consumers and cut down on pollution produced by factory farming, researchers said on Wednesday

While NASA engineers have grown fish tissue in lab dishes, no one has seriously proposed a way to grow meat on commercial levels.

But a new study conducted by University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny and his colleagues describe two possible ways to do it.

Writing in the journal Tissue Engineering, Matheny said scientists could grow cells from the muscle tissue of cattle, pigs, poultry or fish in large flat sheets on thin membranes. These sheets of cells would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked to increase thickness and resemble meat."

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=2&u=/nm...

[Dave Reynolds]

1. Yummy,

"Vat Patties".

I am fucking drooling....

[johnnie]

5. LOL

Yeah, yummy.

[SmokingJacket]

2. great idea for medical purposes, I'd guess...

You know, if they can grow muscle and skin tissue in a lab.

But frankly I don't want to eat *anything* grown in a lab.

Just the thought rekindles my discarded vegetarianism...

[lvx35]

14. self delete

(double post)

[lvx35]

15. why?

Why would cows in endless rows, shot full with hormones in a giant metal facility strike you as more "organic" than just producing the muscle? The days of farmer joe with the cow in the green field is way past, my friend.

[SmokingJacket]

19. Oh, it's all in my mind, I admit.

I don't eat beef, for madcow reasons, and I know that if I thought hard about pig farms, or went and visited one, I'd give up my favorite food: bacon.

My eating the small amount of meat I do eat is thanks to the careful balancing act my imagination provides. I ain't proud of it, and it wouldn't take much for me to give the stuff up.

But the thought of lab-meat gives me a visceral kind of nausea. That's all!

[Der Blaue Engel]

3. Meatbox!

My ex-bf's pet theory, come to fruition at last!

[Deja Q]

4. Cool. Neo-gruel for the slaves and real organic meat for the wealthy!

[silverpatronus]

30. man this reads like something out of 1984

victory gin anyone?

[tridim]

6. What is the raw material?

The protein has to come from somewhere.

[name not needed]

8. I could tell you,

but then this would turn into a sex thread.

[johnnie]

9. Muscle tissue n/t

[tridim]

13. From what I read the muscle tissue is grown in the lab

I'm saying that growth needs a raw material, what is it? Grain? Soy? ground up meat?

[johnnie]

16. I read it that they start with the muscle tissue

"Writing in the journal Tissue Engineering, Matheny said scientists could grow cells from the muscle tissue of cattle, pigs, poultry or fish in large flat sheets on thin membranes"

That's the way I read it anyway.

[htuttle]

10. Soylent Green is People!

[lvx35]

7. Sweet.

I was just talking about this the other night. Why do we grow cows with brains and eyes and bones that we don't eat...And from a moral perspective, conciousness and awareness, just to be in a slaughterhouse? Its going to be much better for the environment to do it this way as well, and if there are animal ethics issues.

[Catchawave]

28. Don't the by-products from food animals...

eyeballs, bones and stuff, get rendered into pet foods, cosmetics and other products ?

[lvx35]

29. Some, yes

But my impression is based on two things. 1) Living near a slaughterhouse in CO, there was always a stink...It was when they would "burn the blood" and other undesirable parts. The ashes were used I think as fertilizer, but the gases that poured over the town making it stink represented wasted chemicals, a LOT of them 2) I have heard that global warming has actually been significantly affected by flatulence from cows. What are we doing with cow flatulence that is so important?

http://rucus.ru.ac.za/~wolfman/Essays/Cow.html says:


It has been estimated that 9 to 12% of the energy that a cow consumes is turned to methane that is released either through flatulence or burping (Radford, 2001). A huge number of factors affect methane emission, including diet, barn conditions and whether the cow is lactating, but an average cow in a barn produce 542 liters of methane a day, and 600 liters when out in a field (Adam, 2000).

These estimates were made using a trace gas (sulphur hexofluoride) that was released at known points within a barn containing 90 cattle. Levels of this trace gas and CO2 are then measured 30 metres downwind of the shed and thus they can estimate how much CO2 is released per cow per day. All this methane can add up to a significant amount. Australia's 140 million sheep and cattle are estimated to produce one seventh of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions, whilst America's 100 million cattle also are major contributors (Major, 2000).

(snip)

[Tace]

11. This Sounds Like A Better Way To Make Food...

than the way we're doing it now.

I'm an omnivore. I eat meat. I've always thought that hunting meat would be better than purchasing it from a grocery store. But, with wildlife now carrying Mad Cow Disease, I'm not really interested in hunting for meat.

It also sounds like it could be healthier.

On Edit: I'm an old-time science fiction buff. Sci-Fi has been forecasting this kind of thing for 60 years.

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Yes! One more step toward food replicators, ala Star Trek!

Replicators can replicate meat!

That's what I want - guilt free ribeyes, veal, and foie gras!

And, since they're replicated, those rieyes, veal, and foie gras could have all the nutrition of a meal of salad, broccoli, and asparagus.

[Cassandra]

17. And all the calories of...

a meal in the holodeck. More chocolate cake?

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. dupe post

so let me say FREEPERS SUCK THEIR DAD'S DICKS!

[Bouncy Ball]

31. RABRRRRRR IS THE BEST!!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. I FUCKIN' AM!

No lie on that, yo.

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. I just had six pieces of chocolate cheese cake, a 40 ounce ribeye

wrapped in bacon with sauteed mushrooms, about a stick of butter melted over 3 lobster tails and 16 shrimp, a huge baked potato with a can of sour cream, butter, and bacon bits on it, a dozen or so hushpuppies, half a loaf of texas toast with melted butter, and twelve Martinis to wash it all down with.

Total calories: 372.

[Bouncy Ball]

32. I just got sick reading that.

[Tace]

18. Those Wonderful Replicators!

Yes! Big steaks, best champaign. (Remember, those aliens drank some interesting ales).

Not to mention some of the other finer things in life. I'll leave that to your personal imagination. : )

[greendog]

20. Sounds kind of like Bruce Sterling's SCOP

Vat grown single celled protein.

[hickman1937]

21. Science fiction has been using vat grown meat for years.

Laugh, scorn if you will but sci fi has been positing things (that later become reality) for years. 200 years from now the idea of eating meat from a formerly alive animal will be thought disgusting, and unhealthy.

[Iris]

22. The journal "Tissue Engineering" is for dumb asses. n/t

[Madrone]

25. ...

[Madrone]

26. ...

[no name no slogan]

27. I'm a steelworker, I kill what I eat

(and just because I can make a reference to an obscure Big Black tune does not make me cool-- pointing it out does ).