Meat from a petri dish: Yuk or yum?

[Robin Garr]

I'd swear that this is an urban legend, like the one about McDonald's chicken "nuggets" being grown in a lab, but it's extensively footnoted, including a link to a 2005 New York Times article that reports it as serious news and concludes, "The thought of beef grown in the lab may turn your stomach, but in vitro meat would avoid many of the downsides of factory farming ... meat growers wouldn't need to use a new animal for each set of starter cells - and the meat industry would no longer be dependent on slaughtering animals."

What do you think? Would you chow down on "meat" grown in a petri dish?

In Vitro Meat
by Gregor Wolbring
May 15, 2007

In vitro meat, also known as laboratory-grown meat, is - according to Wikipidia - animal flesh that has never been part of a complete, living animal. Potentially, any animal could be a source of cells for in vitro meat, even humans. No meat has yet been produced for public consumption, but many people are now working in the field. In vitro meat differs from synthetic and artificial meat, which taste and have the texture of meat but do not consist of meat.

New Harvest is a non-profit organization created in the United States to bring cultivated meat closer to reality. Its webpage includes an article by Marianne Heselmans from a Dutch newspaper on September 10, 2005, translated into English with the title "Cultivated Meat: The Dutch cultivate minced meat in a petri dish." The article states that "the universities of Eindhoven, Utrecht and Amsterdam are working to cultivate muscles out of the stem cells of a pig," and that "the Senter/Novem Institute of the Department of Economic Affairs has allotted a two million euro subsidy for a project to cultivate pork meat out of stem cells."

The article quotes Dr. Henk Haagsman, Professor of Meat Sciences at the University of Utrecht: "Six years from now we might already have a product. No loin, yet, but indeed a kind of minced meat the catering industry can use in pizzas or sauces." Haagsman is also quoted as believing that cost and taste will be similar to regular meat.

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[Jenise]

Interesting. My first reaction is, "but...but...it's not natural." I got a little more open minded as I read through the article, though, and perhaps the last paragraph really brought it home when it compared in vitro meat production to stem cell production, which I am in favor of. Namely, “One last thought: if there are any arguments from anybody that in vitro meat is still somehow unethical or demeaning to an animal, they seriously need to rethink things. A chunk of tissue grown in a petri dish is as far removed from an existential, emotional, and conscious creature as is a rock.”

Maybe that's a good thing.

Regarding the McNuggets rumors, you can quash them the same way as the rumors about using earthworms in burgers. McDonald's can't possibly be using earthworms because they're too expensive.

In vitro culture of muscle tissue is nothing new. I see two major problems with its use in the food industry, though. First, scaling the production up to a level where the product could be sold to the consumer. In vitro cultures currently are a few grams each, tops. Second, the process would be hideously expensive compared to traditional animal husbandry.

I don't see this happening anytime soon. And, apart from some publish-or-perish-driven researchers hoping to wangle a degree or tenure out of the research, I don't see any impetus coming from agribusiness to help this along. The potential yuk-factor on the part of consumers alone is enough to discourage this. Consider the GM food PR problems.

Would I eat the stuff? Depends mainly on how it tastes and how much it costs.

-Paul W.

Again, the Dutch show why their food esthetic naturally required them to legalize pot.

I think this is a great idea. For my own religious taboos, this takes care of the matter- I would certainly taste meat grown in the absence of consciousness. I'm wondering how a Muslim or Jew would handle this, since the meat is no longer the flesh of an unclean animal, but then, who says that religion is required to be rational?

Again, the Dutch show why their food esthetic naturally required them to legalize pot.

Or is it the reverse; that their cuisine has developed in response to legalized pot? Case in point:

My wife got back from Amsterdam last week and brought home a bunch of little boxes of "De Ruijter Vruchten Hagel". Apparently, this consists of little brightly colored sugar bombs one sprinkles on toast for breakfast. According to the pictures on the boxes, one sprinkles a lot of them on the toast. They were served at the hotel for breakfast and the grocery stores had shelves full of different versions (e.g. white and dark chocolate curls) by different manufacturers. It didn't appear to her that it was being marketed to kids. A bad photo of the stuff:


There is only one explanation for the sale of such a product to adults, and it involves significant cannabis use.


Mike

Oh yes, I saw this my last time there. The idea is to spread the butter on very thickly, then sprinkle heavily with jimmies. The guy I was with at the conference was British and even he was horrified.

I would give it a try, but not have especailly high expectations. Meat flavor is impacted by the feed regimen. Culture medium is not, exactly, an ideal flavor enhancer. We'll just have to see.

Are you sure you're not Dutch?

Mmmm... chocolate hagel! Haven't had that in ages.