In-Vitro Meat?
So what’s for dinner in 2022? A new report released by Britain’s Food Ethics Council last month identified some of the possibilities – more food grown in allotments, more functional foods – and in vitro meat, meaning meat that’s been grown from animal stem cells as opposed to meat cut from a carcass.
When reports of meat grown experimentally in the lab by Dutch researchers first surfaced a few years ago it seemed a bit far fetched, but not any longer. Two years ago an international group of scientists formed the In Vitro Meat Consortium, and last year the Norwegian Food Research Institute hosted a conference to discuss the challenges of producing in vitro meat commercially. If it does reach supermarket shelves, say researchers, it could help solve a few problems, like lessening the impact of livestock production on the environment, helping to prevent foodborne diseases, and reducing the need for millions of animals to be factory farmed.
One organisation working to produce meat from cell cultures is New Harvest which makes it clear that the technology now being developed could create processed meats like hamburger or sausages, but that the know how to create an in vitro steak or a chop doesn’t exist – at least, not yet.
Now, I’ve done a ton of cell/tissue culture work, and am familar with quite a few of the high tech manipulations used to create food products…and this still struck me as pretty weird…very ”Sci Fi.” But, it has its compelling aspects too, w/respect to environmental issues and the humane treatment of livestock animals.
Under the circumstances, I guess my answer to the question at the end of the article, “Would you eat an in-vitro burger?” is “Yes”. If they can come up with commercially viable products, I’d be willing to give ‘em a shot…as long as they’re nutritious and taste good, that is.
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Makster on 20 May 2009 at 9:24 am #
They would have to show me the nutritional value and prove to me there would be no other “issues”.
Of course it would have to taste good too!!
Darkblood on 04 Jun 2009 at 5:38 pm #
I’m looking forward to in-vitro meat. Ultimately it will be cheaper to produce, less polluting, more efficient, less likely to spread food-borne diseases, healthier, and fresher. The in-vitro meat could be grown in a lab right in the city, so there would be less travel time to market. The meat could be engineered with more nutrients and more healthy fats.
Elissa on 04 Jun 2009 at 10:32 pm #
It could be interesting…while in-vitro culture techniques might not be able to perfectly duplicate the physical structure of intact muscle tissue, the technology used to create vegetarian meat substitutes could probably be applied to provide in-vitro meat with a more meat-like texture and appeal.
Making meat substitutes out of actual meat may seem a little ironic, but there ya go.