JCC Will vegetarians become meat eaters?

Factory grown meat

Dr. Mark Post of Eindhoven University in the Netherlands hopes to produce meat in factories, The Economist reports.

He derives stem cells from cattle muscle,which are then multiplied a millionfold before they are put in Petri dishes and allowed to turn into muscle cells.

He plant to scale the process up by growing the cells on small spheres floating in tanks. Ultimately, he will use scaffolds made of biodegradable polymer tubes to deliver nutrients and oxygen to the interior of the meat.

The nutrients themselves could come from conventional crops, but Post also plans to use algae, which grow faster than vascular plants, to provide the necessary amino acids, sugars and fats.

In a presentation on Advances, Challenges, and Prospects for Cultivation of Tissue-Engineered Meat given at the AAAS annual meeting on Feb. 19, Post said that there is a tremendous amount of work ahead to eventually reach an efficient, cost-effective and high quality meat product, but most of these steps are of a technical nature.

The versatility of the culture process may also result in alternative meat products that, for instance, contain healthier fatty acids, or are blends of various stem-cell sources.



Or too much ick factor?

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I think the bigger question is, will humans become anatomically different over time as some decide to go herbivorous and others stay omnivorous? Like the Panda Bear turning away from its carnvivore anatomy and choosing to become a specialist herbivore, over time it will change so as to digest and process the energy from its diet more efficiently (unless it dies out before then, which seems likely).

We are not built to only eat one time of food, so if we decide to go down that route our bodies will have to change to support the choice we made.

 

Dude, that's gross. I'd rather eat that fake meat they make out of fungus. I forget what it's called...

 

Dude, I like hamburgers but that's just plain disgusting.

 

This.

 

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Yeah. In contrast, modern factory farms totally enhance my appetite. Yum!

 

If it is:

*tasty
*cheap
*nutritious

Then I could see it eventually replacing all animal-killed meat.

 

You know me so well

 

I agree with Ghost. I'm not a vegetarian, though I applaud people who are (at least those who do it for ethical reasons), though I'm not too far removed. I'm an almost pescetarian or something. I'd definitely make the switch to factory-grown meat if it seemed viable.

 

QFT

 

you guys think that's gross, you might not want to look at what this meat is going to be made of...

 

So telling people to "Eat **** and die." will lose a little of it's oomph.

 

I don't see why everyone is going "oh gross." If it's looks the same, feels the same, *IS* the same, it's probably going to taste the same. Frankly, I don't see why it's less appealing than getting that meat out from inside an animal.

 

This. To be fair, we should probably already be saying "oh gross" about the meat that's already available.

 

I remembered! It's called Quorn. They have like, fake chicken nuggets made from fungus grown in huge vats.

 

It's not a real meal unless at least one animal has died to create it.

 

I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian because I like animals. But I'd probably have to take a class on how to actually prepare the food.

 

At the point you're just growing it, then it's basically a plant. And replacing an animal with a plant is ALWAYS gross.

 

The moral vegetarians (as opposed to those who simply dislike the taste) would be obligated to eat this stuff, IMO. Unless it caused freakish mutations that turned people into gelatinous cubes, or something.

Because, yeah, I agree with Ghost.

 

Have you never cooked vegetables before?

Though if not, Vegetable Preparation 101 would be a great addition to your resume.

 

So basically....McDonalds.

 

"Obligated" is a strange choice of word. Why do you think so?

For my part, I'd be willing to try vat meat if it were commercially available.

 

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****, I'll eat a pig's *** if they cook it right

 

How do you figure that?

If this is some sort of argument about the incidental death of animals in agriculture, I'd point out that you have to weigh that against the environmental impact of maintaining facilities sophisticated enough to run what is basically a state-of-the-art scientific laboratory (stem cell manipulation, clonal proliferation, etc) on a scale that's large enough for mass production.

Then you have to explain the illogical leap you made to conclude that not eating meat of any kind is somehow worse than eating meat of this one specific type, since it's not as if this can replace non-protein food.

Then you'd need to explain how this is supposed to be more affordable/cost efficient than vegetarianism for feeding large populations, especially those in developing countries that can't afford much in the way of meat to begin with.