Meat grown in a lab, would you eat it?

[YadaYadaYada]

According to an article on Daily Mail this morning, a company called Memphis Meat is hoping to bring synthetic meat to market in 2-3 years and within 30 years we will be eating "clean" meat grown in a lab which will also address environmental impact of conventional meat farming. Behind this venture is Cargill, one of the largest agricultural firms, Bill Gates and Richard Branson.

The meat is grown in a lab using isolated cow and pig cells and adding sugar, oxygen and nutrients to make them grow then the cells are used to make meat. Although no animals are slaughtered in this process, the firm does use "fetal bovine serum from unborn calves' blood to initiate the process."

Memphis Meats has already introduced its first product, a meatball in 2016.

As a meat eater the prospect of eating meat
grown in a lab turns my stomach. I would much rather purchase meat from a small local farm and support a local farmer. Also not sure that I trust a known eugenicist with as much money as Bill Gates to be a major player in something possibly millions of people will be consuming.

So would you eat meat grown in a lab or if that becomes the new normal will you give it up completely in favor of a vegan diet? Here is the article if anyone wants to check it out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ives-13-million-grow-clean-meat.html#comments

 

[telephone89]

I'd probably try it. I will probably never be a vegan, and I do enjoy meat, though I realize the environmental impact it has. It'd have to taste the same/better though. I don't have the time now, but will read the article and do more research. Much of the variation in meats come from the fat content, which can be upped with more sedentary animals and lowered with more activity. So do they just inject more fat or something? Interesting.

 

[elle_71125]

I would try it. I'm not a big meat eater as it is and I would love to see a world where less animals are killed for us to eat.
I don't think I could go full vegan though. That diet is too restrictive for my tastes. Maybe vegetarian.

I'm always worried about the long term fall out from stuff like that (ex. Causes some disease but you don't know about it for 10 years).

 

[monarch64]

I wouldn't. The only thing close that I've consumed is fake "chicken" nuggets (plant protein based.) They are remarkably similar to the "real" thing. Kinda like soy hot dogs. Both are garbage as actual animal products; equally guilty pleasure as totally fake food. Really the nuggets for me are a vehicle to deliver delicious BBQ sauces into my gullet.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Monarch you make a very valid point because really what else is a suitable vehicle for BBQ sauce if not chicken (real or fake).

I texted this to my SIL who I have mentioned before is studying food safety and sustainable agriculture, she has heard of Memphis Meats and says they are a great company. She basically said this is the way the meat industry is going because industry simply cannot keep up with the demand and the environmental ramifications over the long term. Although she said she wouldn't eat it herself.

Maybe I'm getting old, technology is getting harder to embrace when it takes jobs away from people. Sooner than we'd like we won't have the option to drive anymore with the self
driving cars coming to market. AI is being lauded as the next great thing and meat will be artificially manufactured.

Stop the ride, I want to get off

 

[AprilBaby]

No, it's a mind thing for me. Sounds like weird science.

 

[Arcadian]

I've eaten weird stuff before so.... sure I'd give it a shot.

 

[stracci2000]

No, I would not eat it.
I don't need meat that badly! I'm happy with a salad.

 

[partgypsy]

If there was a way to make it economical and same dietary profile as meat, why not? I love meat but I hate that animals are housed and killed for me to enjoy it.

 

[MollyMalone]

* * * As a meat eater the prospect of eating meat grown in a lab turns my stomach. I would much rather purchase meat from a small local farm and support a local farmer. Also not sure that I trust a known eugenicist with as much money as Bill Gates to be a major player in something possibly millions of people will be consuming.
* * *

Well, the option of purchasing (safe to eat) meat from a local small farm is not a practical option for everyone in this country & around the world.

Why is Bill Gates being branded as "a known eugenicist"?

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Well, the option of purchasing (safe to eat) meat from a local small farm is not a practical option for everyone in this country & around the world.

Why is Bill Gates being branded as "a known eugenicist"?

I appreciate not everyone can afford to buy from a small local farm Lord knows we are not able to financially at the moment. It would be great though to still have that option because not everyone wants to eat meat grown in a lab.

Bill Gates has been quoted in several interviews saying that he supports new vaccine development to reduce disease and reduce population growth. He seems to have a very vested interest in reducing the population in the interest of saving our planet.

 

[OreoRosies86]

No. I don't really eat meat though. I don't have any moral or ethical objections to eating meat (though I do donate to organizations which work against cruel farming and food production) but last winter I started getting really weirded out about meat products in general and stopped eating them almost entirely. It's a mental thing and I have no idea where it came from. Something about the smell of meat cooking made me feel really ill. Theoretically meat from a lab seems like it'd be a good fit but I just don't want it anymore.

 

[MollyMalone]

Try as I might, @StephanieLynn, I couldn't figure out how financial support of the development of vaccines against infectious diseases for which there are currently no vaccines (e.g., HIV/AIDS) is synonymous with eugenics in the negative sense of reducing, if not seeking to eliminate, a particular population because they have been deemed to be genetically inferior/undesirable.

I turned to Google, and turns out that Alex Jones -- the odious man who, among other things, claimed time and again that no child was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, that was a staged hoax & repeatedly stirred the Pizzagate pot-- is a major (altho' maybe not the first) proponent of Bill Gates as an eager eugenicist hell-bent on killing the peoples of Africa and India.

Because I'm apparently a glutton for punishment, I watched several of Jones's videos on the topic and read articles posted on his InfoWars and prisonplanet web sites. Compared a number of his "facts" with, e.g., full transcripts of Bill Gates' speeches-interviews that supposedly were the basis for Alex Jone's pronouncements; a number of print articles; other statistical resources. No surprise to me, Jones's representations include the opposite of what Gates actually said; cherry-picked snippets of quotes from Gates that he's given a ridiculous spin; not only innuendo but wholly made-up stuff, etc., etc.

So no, I won't be jumping on Alex Jones's Bill Gates: Eugenics Front for the Illuminati bandwagon.

 

[mochiko42]

As for meat, I would rather eat less of it (but in higher quality) rather than eat tofurkey or something like that. I'm on the fence about the lab-grown meat. I guess I would have to see and know more about it before deciding, but wouldn't rule it out.

I've flirted with the idea of not eating meat, but what I would really love is a very good vegan substitute for dairy items, especially cheese, since the dairy industry has many of the same environmental and animal welfare issues that the meat industry has. Still, I LOVE cheese, especially fine French cheeses and find there are no convincing analogues for raw milk cheeses in particular. Oh and fresh cheese curds, too! Gosh I love a good cheese.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Try as I might, @StephanieLynn, I couldn't figure out how financial support of the development of vaccines against infectious diseases for which there are currently no vaccines (e.g., HIV/AIDS) is synonymous with eugenics in the negative sense of reducing, if not seeking to eliminate, a particular population because they have been deemed to be genetically inferior/undesirable.

I turned to Google, and turns out that Alex Jones -- the odious man who, among other things, claimed time and again that no child was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, that was a staged hoax & repeatedly stirred the Pizzagate pot-- is a major (altho' maybe not the first) proponent of Bill Gates as an eager eugenicist hell-bent on killing the peoples of Africa and India.

Because I'm apparently a glutton for punishment, I watched several of Jones's videos on the topic and read articles posted on his InfoWars and prisonplanet web sites. Compared a number of his "facts" with, e.g., full transcripts of Bill Gates' speeches-interviews that supposedly were the basis for Alex Jone's pronouncements; a number of print articles; other statistical resources. No surprise to me, Jones's representations include the opposite of what Gates actually said; cherry-picked snippets of quotes from Gates that he's given a ridiculous spin; not only innuendo but wholly made-up stuff, etc., etc.

So no, I won't be jumping on Alex Jones's Bill Gates: Eugenics Front for the Illuminati bandwagon.

Well I am not really familiar with Alex Jones, I am just going by interviews I have seen with Bill Gates himself and yes he did say these things and even if you consider the whole context of the interview, what he says is still questionable IMO.

Is Bill Gates being a "known eugenicist" a fact? Maybe not, just my opinion based on what I have seen of him and I expect not everyone will share the same opinion.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

It is interesting to see the wide scope of feelings on this issue. When I ate vegetarian for a few years I found the meat substitutes to be pretty good, apart from Quorn, apparently whatever their fake turkey is made out of is not something I could handle. However Mochiko brings up a good point, the dairy options are really lack luster, especially if you really love cheese. Maybe as time goes on they will come out with some really amazing cheese substitutes.

 

[missy]

I don't like meat and I have no desire to eat meat alternatives. I eat some fish but I am planning on returning to a (mainly) vegan diet probably next week as soon we finish the fish Greg just cooked. I hope it goes OK as I was a vegan for about a decade in my twenties and a bit in my early thirties but I went to a mostly Pescetarian diet since then and honestly I am looking forward to a vegan diet again.

Mainly for animal kindness reasons over health reasons and in fact the only reason I went to a Pescetarian diet from my prior vegan diet was health reasons which I won't go into. But going to try vegan again. And dairy doesn't agree with me anyway so I haven't been able to enjoy cheese for a long time (and I miss it) though I occasionally (rarely) have ice cream so I am not a purist. If the mood strikes once in a while I will enjoy "verboten" foods however. I feel like all or nothing is destined to fail so I try to set myself up for success as best as possible with making no food off limits if I want to have it.

It helps that I love black beans (and various other beans) and that is my main protein source when I am eating vegan.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Missy, I read your NIRDI thread and the ice cream you get looks amazing

Bling and ice cream and Scandi's puppy are my faves that you guys share on that thread. Hope that doesn't make me the PS stalker!

 

[missy]

Missy, I read your NIRDI thread and the ice cream you get looks amazing

Bling and ice cream and Scandi's puppy are my faves that you guys share on that thread. Hope that doesn't make me the PS stalker!

Hahaha not at all. Please join in the fun if you want to. We would love hearing from you StephanieLynn! I hope to get an ice cream break today because Days is closing soon for the end of summer and won't be back till next May so we are trying to make it there for our Days fix. I will of course take a photo for the NIRDI thread if we do enjoy our cool treat today.

 

[Arcadian]

I've eaten some interesting stuff, none of which has killed me yet.

Frankly there are things we can eat that might be better for us than meat grown in a lab. Eating grubs which is widely done, isn't a bad idea. Having a grub farm to feed a family would be easier to handle and manage and be loads cheaper than "lab grown meat" frankly.

listen, if folks can eat shrimp, and other bugs out of the sea, land based grubs shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Hayley87]

Blech!

I love meat; I love all food, really Since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease a year ago, I've been forced to scrutinize every packaged food before it goes into the shopping cart. The end result has been disenchantment (and borderline horror ) at what goes into even purportedly healthy non-whole foods. The food industry is scary nowadays.

Personally, I'd rather eat real meat (and that cultivated as humanely and healthfully as possible) less often than anything Frankensteined in a lab.

I'm also a big proponent of "snout to tail" meat eating, and I find the overwhelming preference for muscle meat to be a First World Problem™ that artificially inflates demand for meat production. At least in California, there seems to be somewhat of a resurgence in whole-animal restaurants (thanks, Hipsters!), which I think is a more responsible and more respectful approach to meat eating.

 

[Arkteia]

I am neither a vegan nor a vegetarian but in this country I try to avoid meat. It tastes ugly. I just came from Germany where everything - meat, fish, legumes - were awesome. i don't know what is wrong here, whether they feed animals growth hormone, or keep them on a bad diet, or employ bad cooks in restaurants, but American food is tasteless. So yes, i'd try any meat, grown in a lab, synthetic, what not, as long as it is tasteful.