Test tube, that is. Coming soon to a grocery store near you, meat that is designed in Petri dishes then transferred into large vats to grow.
Rapidly evolving technology and increasing concern about the environmental impact of meat production are signs that vat-grown meat is moving from scientific curiosity to consumer option. In vitro meat production is a specialized form of tissue engineering, a biomedical practice in which scientists try to grow animal tissues like bone, skin, kidneys and hearts. Proponents say it will ultimately be a more efficient way to make animal meat, which would reduce the carbon footprint of meat products.
Researchers can currently grow small amounts of meat in the lab, and have even been able to get heart cells to beat in Petri dishes. Growing muscle cells on an industrial scale is the next step, scientists say.
So, for all you meat eaters out there, here is a way to eat animal flesh and be able to say that you are no longer contributing to animal cruelty or environmental degradation.
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3 comments:
I've heard about this. The trick is going to be simulating the environmental conditions which make muscle cells into edible tissue, rather than protoplasmic goop. If they can pull that off, then you'd have to be crazy to want to eat an actual animal instead -- you could literally have a steak exactly the way you wanted it.
I look forward to technologies like this. Of course then the "organic" (i.e. large-scale commercial farm raised) meat industry will thrive on fear mongerers.
Call me old school, but I want my meat to have been actually walking around before it became my meat.
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