Lab-Grown Meat

[brendan]

Check it out: invitro-grown meat, sans animal slaughter.

 

"Researchers are making progress in discovering how to producelab-grown meat, which requires no animals at all to be slaughtered. You can read a PDF of the actual journal article about this work."

[brendan]

Geeky musings from Slashdot.org users on space meat.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/06/1737228&tid=191

[lelle]

i think its great, although eating it is still unhealthy i guess.

but the main fact is, that no animal has to suffer for the "pleasure" of eating meat and that is a awesome step forward

 

the greatest thing would be a tree on which vegan sausages are growing haha, i would love that.

[veggymeggy]

It's such a strange idea I'm not even sure how to react.....it's amazing that it's even possible, but still.....it's bizarre!

[Richard]

I've been reading about this all over the place on various forums. I guess it's a step in the right direction, if it's cheaper to make then corporations will use it instead of meat from animals, so it will get put into processed foods etc. It will be interesting if some other companies see it as a chance to make a new distinction like 'Made from 100% REAL animals' in order to seem more 'natural' than the companies using this cloned meat stuff. But then maybe people wouldn't want to see that written on their packages 'Made from real animals' might put them off. So maybe they'd phrase it differently like 'Does not contain IGM' or whatever.

 

I wouldn't eat it, it sounds gross. Just like if someone grew a human hand and asked me to eat it, I'd say no. Whole thing is weird and ing. But still, I see no moral problem with it, much more favourable than farming and breeding etc.

[veggymeggy]

I agree...as an alternative to the way animals are farmed and slaughtered now, it seems like a good alternative. Yet, I just can't imagine actually eating it! Science is amazing though huh? Guess time will tell if this goes anywhere.

[jonathan]

you still have to take the cells from the 'donor' animal.

 

if people are ok with eating lab grown animal meat, are they also ok with eating lab grown human meat? after all a human can give consent for cells to be taken, an animal cannot.

 

jonathan

[Richard]

Yea the initial cells they get will still be exploitation. But from what I understand, they don't have to take a huge chunk out of the animal. Maybe I should read up on it, but from what I remember, they only need DNA or something? So that can be from anything, saliva, hair, blood sample. uhhhuhuhuhuhuhhhhhhhh it grosses me out to think of them growing muscles in a factory. They have to exercise the muscles to get them to grow. Can you imagine this big warehouse with all these muscles attached to levers and cogs and stuff, being pulled backwards and forwards, extending and contracting gross gross gross. I wonder if when you take them off the machine, if they're still 'alive' and like jerk around and stuff before you cut them up. I am freaked out.

[compassionategirl]

you still have to take the cells from the 'donor' animal.

 

if people are ok with eating lab grown animal meat, are they also ok with eating lab grown human meat? after all a human can give consent for cells to be taken, an animal cannot.

 

jonathan

 

I am with Jonathan in this one...although right now I am in a state of shock from reading about this it is so bizarre, and a bit freaky.

 

in fact, i think i gotta go vomit after reading Richard's last post on this!!!

 

The thought of eating FLESH of an animal is just as repugnant to me as eating a human, and this is coming from somebody who use to drool for RAW meat!!!!!!!

[Richard]

I'd rather they made the meat out of cells from a consenting human. But once they have the cells, you don't need to get cells from a living creature again, you can just use the cells from the weirdo muscles that are made in the factories. If it really is as simple as taking a swab of saliva, or picking up a hair off the ground, then I see no problem at all with it. If they have to take a blood sample, I guess I'd be slightly against it. But I think the 'good' (for want of a better term...) out-weighs the bad. Taking a syringe of blood isn't so bad for an animal. I am against that happening, don't get me wrong, I don't see any interferance with an animal as a good thing unless its for the animal's own good. But I think bigger picture, it'd save millions of animals possibly to do this thing.

[CollegeB]

They are not going to use blood. As Johnathan pointed out and the articles said this stuff will be made from muscle tissue. If they get this technology worked out then they can engineer meat to be a lot healthier and then our health argument is gone, this technology would also destroy the suffering argument for the most part but i can live with that. There will probably always be a market for real meat though it just will cost more. The technology we are discussing does not point to a change in the ethics or mentality of anyone but just a new way to create a product. What I am saying is that this does not take this world one step closer to veganism. The meat habit lives on.

[Richard]

It doesn't promote ethics, and I doubt anyone would switch from 'real' meat to this weird stuff based on ethics. Also I think there would be hardly anyone switching from being vegetarian or vegan to eating this stuff. I think it's really just a tool to get ideal meat cheaply. But if it does take off I will be happy because even though it's for stupid reasons, it may reduce animal suffering. Plus, maybe the existance of such a thing might make people think about meat more carefully. I mean, some meat-eaters would say 'yuck!' to this new grown-meat, however, they should really think why is this any more gross than what's happening now? Etc. I think it is a development of some uhmmmm I dunno, importance I suppose is the word. I think it's something people will talk about, and maybe make their ignorant brains get into gear as an indirect knock-on effect.

[willpeavy]

If anyone is interested, here is an article I wrote last year:

 

---------------------------

 

The Flesh Factory of the Future

By Will Peavy - [email protected]

 

On December 28, 2004, the U.S. government granted an inventor a patent for, “producing tissue engineered meat for consumption.” More specifically, the patent was issued for the process of growing, in a factory, non-human animal muscles that are intended to be eaten by human animals. The muscles grown through this form of technology would be independent of any sort of nervous system or conscious being; and thus no animal, in the current sense of the word, would need to be grown or slaughtered in order to produce the meat.

 

While no clear plan to implement this technology on a wide scale is mentioned in the patent, it is apparent that there is a strong profit motive to bringing this form of meat to the mass market as quickly as possible. Factory farmers, whose bottom line is to produce flesh in the most efficient manner possible in order to maximize profits, have a clear motive to embrace this technology. This means that, potentially, the process of creating tissue engineered meat created from non-sentient flesh could replace the process of imprisoning and slaughtering billions of sentient animals per year for their flesh.

 

I imagine there would be a good deal of opposition to this technology from several groups, most notably in the form of religious objections, and from the grain producers who would no longer be needed by the flesh producers. However, as a vegan who is concerned with the health and well-being of the Earth, humans, and other animals – I support this technology. While animal activists have been advocating veganism for years, we have seen the number of animals that go through the factory farming system increase. Yet, this technology may be able to provide a product that can satiate the desires of the average animal flesh consumer (because of the lack of public outrage towards factory farming and because of the prevalence of fast food chains, it is apparent that the average consumer holds little interest in how his or her food is produced) without sentencing billions of sentient animals to confinement and cruelty. Whereas factory farms cause a massive amount of environmental pollution in the form of animal urine and feces, tissue engineered meat holds the promise of producing consumable animal flesh without creating animal excrement. And while human rights groups point to the slaughter industry as one of the absolute worst industries in terms of labor abuse, with this new form of technology there would be need for the carcass slicing of the slaughterhouse.

 

Upon first glance the idea of tissue engineered meat may not be a pretty one, but if it were to become the de facto standard of meat production, it appears that this technology would put an end to many of the ills associated with the modern factory farm.

 

The full text of the patent can be seen at

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=6835390

[Renecarol25]

I first heard of this YEARS ago on a vegetarian forum.. I got the impression that this was just some sort of rumor/urban legend going around the internet for anyone stupid enough to believe it was a possibility. Looks like it is a real possibility now. I would never want to eat vat-grown meat but I suppose it would reduce suffering if taken up by corporate meat giants instead of factory farming.

[V VII Hero]

ewww

[Gym hater]

ewww

 

It is not as ewww as eating a dead animal. The people probably will be ed about the idea of lab-grown meat, but the consumers will welcome it. I think this new method has more advantages than disadvantages. It is sort of a compromise between going vegan and eating meat(assuming it is for animal right reasons).

[nobbi]

This is my PERSONAL thought on this matter:

 

I think this is just BULLSHIT !!! It is unbelievable how much money people waste for useless things. Why invent invitro meat??? I am vegan and I am convinced that I do not need any meat at all. Why searching for an alternative for something I do not need? People are not able to use all the good stuff we have on earth. What a shame! Instead of using alle the food we already have, we have to invent something new again. Why??? Just use the right, natural food for your body. I guess we all here are proving that vegan is healthy for humans, even for active vegan sports(wo)men. So, saying yes to invitro meat is taking a step back and could people make believe that there is a need of eating meat. I would never support and approve this. Thumbs down for this silly idea.

 

Nobbi

[Gym hater]

This is my PERSONAL thought on this matter:

 

I think this is just BULLSHIT !!! It is unbelievable how much money people waste for useless things. Why invent invitro meat??? I am vegan and I am convinced that I do not need any meat at all. Why searching for an alternative for something I do not need?

 

Nobbi

 

It's true that you don't need it, but the production animals sure need a replacement for their suffering. Although people don't need to eat meat, most people still do. So this lab-grown meat can be used feed those meat eaters, and thus lessening the animal suffering.

[Daywalker]

The technology we are discussing does not point to a change in the ethics or mentality of anyone but just a new way to create a product. What I am saying is that this does not take this world one step closer to veganism. The meat habit lives on.

Exactly!

 

It will be interesting if some other companies see it as a chance to make a new distinction like 'Made from 100% REAL animals' in order to seem more 'natural' than the companies using this cloned meat stuff. But then maybe people wouldn't want to see that written on their packages 'Made from real animals' might put them off.

Good point also.

 

ewww

Yep

 

It's ing.

[V VII Hero]

This is my PERSONAL thought on this matter:

 

I think this is just BULLSHIT !!! It is unbelievable how much money people waste for useless things. Why invent invitro meat??? I am vegan and I am convinced that I do not need any meat at all. Why searching for an alternative for something I do not need? People are not able to use all the good stuff we have on earth. What a shame! Instead of using alle the food we already have, we have to invent something new again. Why??? Just use the right, natural food for your body. I guess we all here are proving that vegan is healthy for humans, even for active vegan sports(wo)men. So, saying yes to invitro meat is taking a step back and could people make believe that there is a need of eating meat. I would never support and approve this. Thumbs down for this silly idea.

 

Nobbi

 

I agree. and i still think its gross. I'd rather support a vegan lifestyle, than meat (animal or genetic lab). fuck that.

[nobbi]

This is my PERSONAL thought on this matter:

 

I think this is just BULLSHIT !!! It is unbelievable how much money people waste for useless things. Why invent invitro meat??? I am vegan and I am convinced that I do not need any meat at all. Why searching for an alternative for something I do not need?

 

Nobbi

 

It's true that you don't need it, but the production animals sure need a replacement for their suffering. Although people don't need to eat meat, most people still do. So this lab-grown meat can be used feed those meat eaters, and thus lessening the animal suffering.

 

Not only concerning this discussion, but in general I think we should always think in a bigger context.

 

People decide by themselves if they eat meat or not, sure. But what if this lab-meat would be available... Think of the children, who will grow up with lab-meat, because their parents are meat eaters. I hate that thought, because in my opinion everything synthetic is worse than the natural product. I would prefer to eat pure meat than lab-meat. Also I say no to genetic manipulated stuff like soy beans. So, I buy ecological food as much as possible. Veganism is not only thinking of animals and taking care of only them.

 

Think big and also take care of humans and our environment as well !

[Richard]

I think it's like veganism > eating lab meat > eating real meat. Eating lab meat is pretty crazy, but is more morally acceptable to me than eating real meat. I still wouldn't eat the lab meat, it's so twisted. I get what you mean nobbi, it does seem so bizzare that people are obsessed with finding alternatives and stuff for things which are totally unnecessary to start with

[lelle]

i can understand that lab grown meat is kind of strange, but on the other side it reduces animal pain and suffering. there are people out there who will never ever change their (m)eating behavior.so they can consume that instead of "real" meat and make the killing and suffering of animals formerly used for meat production obsolete. in my opinion everybody can harm himself as much as he wants (smoking, drinking, drugs). but as soon as another creature gets involved, his freedom to act as he does ends.

so i have to say, i like the idea of lab grown meat, although i would never eat it.

[Gym hater]

Think big and also take care of humans and our environment as well !

 

Lab-meat is better for the environment, becouse there is not as much gas from animal feces damaging the ozon layer. Also with Lab-meat there is not need to cut down acres of rainforest for cows. And also, currently the amount of soy needed for animal production is equal to the amount produced in the USA. I guess with lab-meat you don't need that much soy anymore, so it can get send to a third world country or something. And voila, the end of world hunger!!!!

And I guess it also saves al lot of water.

 

So, a little summary:

No more world hunger, cleaner air, less chance on skin cancer becouse of the sun, more oxygen becouse of the rainforest not being cut down and a bigger water supply.

 

I am not saying I am going to eat the lab-grown meat, just saying it is a great technoligical breakthrough indeed.

[willpeavy]

Good point gym hater. Lab meat would be more environmentally sustainable because it uses resources more efficiently than current meat production methods; and waste (such as blood and excrement) is minimized.