Stem Cell Meat Burgers Could Be Grown In Bioreactors

[rofltehcat]

So we will all eat parts of the same cow and it will never die.

If the calorie input for calorie output ratio is good, this could be a good idea. Especially cows are incredibly inefficient.

I wonder if it'll be more efficient than insects though.

 

[evilnancyreagan]

You know, the people that don't think plants deserve to live.

Not all plants need to be killed to be consumed and most rely on being consumed by animals as part of their reproductive cycle.

I'd like to distinguish that having an animal free diet doesn't implicitly make you some insufferable c-bomb, I accept that animals eat other animals as a part of life. Personally, I abstain from eating animals because they are full of gore and feces.

 

[Flames66]

There's another alternative out there, that's both environmentally friendly, animal friendlier and financially viable.

Maggots.

There's a certain species of Icelandic fly that'll eat just about anything. And all that food is converted straight into maggot-offspring. Unlike most animals we eat where only a relatively small part of the animal is fit for human consumption almost the entire maggot is pure easily digestible protein. You can keep these flies in a tank, feed them with all your biological waste and they'll breed a constant supply of edible maggots.

Only problem, they're maggots. Would you eat them?

I wouldn't eat them as maggots, but if you blended them up and made a burger out of it I would give it a try. If It tasted alright with some sauce and was fairly cheap, it could probably replace my current microwave burger supply.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I don't know about the near future but I look forward to eating cultured meat burgers before I get into what is currently considered my retirement years.

 

[1337mokro]

If it tastes the same I'd make the switch. Though I doubt they'd be able to actually have fat grown along sides the meat and not overpower it.

Chicken would probably be the easiest to do and also be a safer option compared to the salmonella infested birds we eat now.

It would be pretty awesome to basically have a meat compartment in your home where you just add glucose and heat and the cells grow. Just open it and cut off what you're going to have for dinner.

 

[Saltyk]

But without all the suffering, the meat won't taste as good. That's where all the flavor comes from. The suffering really brings out the murder flavor. Yummy!

Seriously, though, I don't know. As someone else said, it really depends on if it tastes as good. Taste is king. If this meat tastes bland, no one would choose to eat it. Especially if it is more expensive. While I will tell you that proper quality spices are more important than the quality of the meat, no amount of spice will make tasteless food taste good. Unless you really like the taste of Pepper and Oregano.

Did anyone else get "Wonderful Cuisine Options" as their captcha?

 

[Strazdas]

Good. we need to grow mean instead of do it the sluaghterhouse way. we will also be able to grow clean meant (no antibiotics, diseases, ect) so it will actually be healthier than what low grade meat we get in burgers now.

Of course the biggest problem here is to overcome the fanatic zeal of "omg its lab meant so it must be bad" idiots. There is always people who oppose such things, just look at GMO product crusades. But if we get past that we will have a better food economy.

Problem is, of course if meat gets expensive enough to make this sort of thing viable.. chances are.. people will not be eating enough meat. I mean, farm raised cricket burgers will probably be the new thing.

hopefully at that point biogrown meant will be relatively cheap.

Maggots.

Its the same kind of stigma as with eating snails. some people would vomit just at the idea, some do it regullary becuase for them its always been a normal thing. maybe one day generation will grow up that consider it normally. i know i want to be dead by then though.

Unless you can also culture fatty tissue, that's going to be some flavorless meat.

Implying MCDonalds burgers meat has flavor......

 

[ryukage_sama]

Meat grown in bioreactors isn't "synthetic", it's "cultured". The cow cells inside the reactor are replicating and following their own genetic and cellular processes.

Apparently, this technology isn't ready for any commercial purposes yet. I've seen bioreactor applications in medicine, where a replacement ear or nose can be grown from a patient's own cells and grafted on to replace those destroyed by some injury or birth defect. Of course, for a person getting plastic surgery, a one-time expense of $200,000 is easier to justify than a single meat patty. Costs will need to drop, but I'm sure they will.

 

[ccggenius12]

What's the article using as the baseline cost for real meat? Is that number the amount that the meat actually costs, or what the consumer pays after government meat subsidies? Because, expensive as meat is, it'd be far more expensive if the US government wasn't propping up the industry so average people can afford it.

 

[lacktheknack]

I've always liked the idea of lab-grown meat; I do sympathize with animals, but not enough to stop eating meat...this kills two birds with one stone (minus the part about killing birds, of course). I'm sure costs will go down drastically as production increases (economies of scale and all that).

But have you seen the cultured meat they have now? That stuff is disgusting...

Problem is, of course if meat gets expensive enough to make this sort of thing viable.. chances are.. people will not be eating enough meat. I mean, farm raised cricket burgers will probably be the new thing.

You'd be amazed. Meat has already gone higher in price than we've ever seen it go before (I swear, it's doubled in the course of a year), and yet I'm selling people just as much meat to people as before, just with triple the complaints about the price.