A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought it was interesting.

Burgers from a lab

My opinion on it is that it can be useful but at the same time, there's something creepy about eating something grown in a lab. O.o I don't eat meat and wouldn't start eating meat just because it was grown in a lab. The technology is great for people that need organ transplants and whatnot but as far as growing food, that's just a bit too unnatural for my tastes. I'm not against the selling of "test tube" meat but it's just not something that I personally would eat.

Whoa weird!

I would probably try it. If I liked it and wasn't really put off by the idea, I'd keep eating it.

Hmm, I already eat a lot of cultured food already, so I probably would eat it. Though it does sound weird, it's not that different than say, yeast or yogurt.

I would be willing to try it. It's sort of eerie. I'm concerned about the amount of electricity it would take to continue to stimulate these "muscles".

It really can't be any worse than eating Lunchables as a kid.
But they haven't made the meat yet; at least not in the form of a steak as the picture misleads. The most they have is a group of cells in a petri dish (the size of a contact lens, they claim) without any muscle tissue. I still think we're a long ways off.

Even so, the environmental impact could be astounding and definitely life-changing.

I would definitely try it. I wondered what future applications they will think of..like could they use it to stop hunger crisis?

That's a good point, anaxilea. *ponders*

Originally Posted by the_paper_crane

It really can't be any worse than eating Lunchables as a kid.
But they haven't made the meat yet; at least not in the form of a steak as the picture misleads. The most they have is a group of cells in a petri dish (the size of a contact lens, they claim) without any muscle tissue. I still think we're a long ways off.

Even so, the environmental impact could be astounding and definitely life-changing.

Funny thing is, the Lunchables is exactly what I thought of when I heard that too. XD

It would be interesting to see how they develop muscles without using too much electricity to stimulate them. I think it's interesting what humans can do but the other part of me asks why nature made humans able to do such things to begin with.

I read this aloud to my fiance and we both laughed hysterically. Let's pour more money down the drain for a couple more decades and maybe in 50 years we'll have synthetic meat mass-produced for the ever-growing world. No one sees any problem with this? It wastes resources, manpower, time we could be devoting to other--more important--areas of scientific research, etc. Plus, I don't want the population of the planet to get any bigger--why is this growing number not a concern?! People feel bad about eating meat because of the animals or that it's bad for the environment? Tell them to eat fruits and veggies and grain, like MANY vegans and vegetarians do every day of our lives. There's already awesome meat substitutes packed with protein like tofu or tempeh, or--if you think soy's bad--seitan (wheat gluten, which has a ridiculous amount of protein in it--I may have to look this up but I think there's like 46 grams of protein per serving). It's that simple. I didn't need a lab or tons of government money to figure out that brain-buster!

This is so ridiculous. There's so much that's aggravating about the article too. ARrrrg!

I'd say the lab is more ethical than, say, the majority of ways meat is cultivated in developed countries - factory farms, anyone?

I'm of the persuasion that, if you think this is weird, you probably think cows still prance about in open air and are on Old McDonald's farm. :lol: Not the case. Not the case at all.

Anyway, yeah. I'd say this is a move in the right direction nonetheless, since it's pretty evident that the way we're currently going in terms of meat-raising is both unethical and unsustainable. Without the use of antibiotics to grow cattle, therefore diminishing their effectiveness for humans, we'd be saving ourselves from a very likely, larger-scale H1N1 outbreak in the not-so-distant future. And, hell, does anyone know how mutated the genetics of these factory farmed animals are? Everything is contorted and about to cave in on us, in due time. It's just that most people aren't well aware of that...

If they revved up the voltage so the muscles contracted twice as fast, would that make it fast food?

The problem with wheat and soy products is that there are people with allergies that can not eat them. I personally eat a lot of it because it does have a lot of protein and is better for you to eat than meat is.

Factory farms are sad. That's one of the reasons, among others that I do not eat meat. Even "cage free" packaging just means that the animals are not in a cage but can be kept free roam in a warehouse setting and the package can still have "cage free" on it. I also think of the breeding practices and antibiotic use as well which I find unethical but that's a whole other rant. That's pretty much the only reason that I think something like growing "meat" that does not require an animal to be locked up all of it's life is a good idea.

Originally Posted by Explodey

If they revved up the voltage so the muscles contracted twice as fast, would that make it fast food?

Thank you!

This is so odd... I wouldn't have ever considered this sort of thing... but I would definitely try one of these burgers. Can't say how much I'd like it, but I'm willing to try most foods, so I don't think it would really bother me. :)

Yeah, I'm a five-year vegetarian..and even eating fake meat, other than Boca, chick-en, stuff like that, would still kinda sicken me..I couldn't really go back to something that's just a replica of what meat really is..it's just like, eating meat again. You know what? I don't even really know.
I just can't eat that stuff..><

I've been vegetarian for a while, largely for ethical reasons, so if I could grab a burger without killing a cow, I'd definitely bite!

I think this is very weird. I find it surprising that scientists would go to such lengths to produce this product and using electricity to stimulate the muscles to maintain their life does seem like a waste of energy when people could simply just become vegetarian or vegan if they don't want to eat meat from an animal.

I actually think it could reduce the number of animals killed in factory farms which is always a good thing. I still wouldn't eat it synthetic meat. I've been a vegetarian for 6 years. Meat no longer is appetizing and looks and smells inedible. For meat eater, however, I think it's a great idea if it works. Obviously, they are in the beginning stages of experimentation.

I think the idea is gross, and seems like it would be pretty expensive :s

I haven't eaten meat in a while mainly due to how most animals are treated, but I don't think I'd try this 'in vitro' meat. Animal meat in any form disgusts me to be honest and I expect there would be some possible downfalls to creating meat in this way and I just find it strange how they freely create and experiment on all this tissue without batting an eyelid. I mean, if it were to save lives, that would be another matter.