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Lab-Grown Meat Chunks - It's What's For Dinner
jonerik writes "CNN has this story on a NASA-funded project being conducted at Touro College in New York. In the experiment, segments of muscle are cut from large goldfish and placed in a vat of 'nutrient-rich liquid,' with the fish chunks growing by 16% within a week. It is hoped that future developments will permit astronauts on long-term missions to include fresh meat in their diet without having to bring along actual animals and fish into space. New Scientist is also reporting the story."
Unfortunately meat eating has not (so far!) been categorized with other atrocities like murder and rape which are just as cruel and barbaric acts like killing sentient creatures simply for food.
The owls are not what they seem
It would probably be cheaper and easier to just give those hungry people soybean products, which:
- contain protein (the best thing about meat),
- can be textured/flavored in a number of ways, and
- are a hell of a lot cheaper/easier to produce in large quantities than 'fish muscle in a can'.
But in agreement, I do think it would be a great way to create meat products which are cruelty-free, untainted by BGH (one would hope), and free of bacteria picked up on the killing floors.
I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
Yes, I had the same problem. There are two ways around this that I can think of:
a) take multiple biopsies of animals and grow from that, as the animals are still alive and healthy, most of the ethical issues go away.
b) find a cancerous growth and grow from that- cancers are immortal
I have a feeling that b) is pretty safe; but I have a stronger feeling that nobody would allow you to feed fish cancers to humans, even though humans immune system would deal with it with ease.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Well, since I publish Vegan.com, that request for comment seems tailor made for me.
You know, I'm not sure there are any ethical considerations to growing "hydroponic" meat. The stuff would not have a brain or the ability to feel pain and fear any more than plants do. It'd be creepy, for sure. But not nearly as creepy as having to kill an animal back here on earth.
The better question is, why would NASA want to create this stuff in the first place? It's obvious that, barring undreamable technology breakthroughs, putting livestock into space is unworkable -- sheesh...it's practically unworkable keeping livestock on earth once the population starts approaching 10 billion ;)
One thing that's also obvious is that space food is gonna suck...no matter if it's vegan or made from synthetic veal calves. There are some superb vegan recipes available now, and I think NASA would be better advised to experiment with some of the great flavors that contemporary vegan cooking can produce. It's not like the 1970s, when plant-based foods were blobs of tasteless brown rice and tofu. I think this NASA meat idea is a holdover from 1950s thinking, when everyone thought meat had to be the center of the meal, for both taste and nutrition.
I'd like to see NASA devote its (too scarce) resources to making plant-based foods taste fantastic in a space environement. It sure beats the thought of microwaved synthetic meat. Spending money developing weird meat substitutes seems like a gross misappropriation of this agency's funds, when better and cheaper food alternatives are available. After all, shouldn't Nasa's money, as much as possible, go to space exploration?
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I mean really ?
Confined space; says it all really.
Face it, people like meat. To a large portion of the population, it tastes good, and is an easy way to get a large amount of protein.
I don't think so. You do realize that right now an incredibly large amount of food goes to waste due to a number of sociopolitical reasons. I'd say that a huge amount of hunger is caused by corruption, not livestock.
I partially agree with you here. Most meals for long space trips are going to be plant-based, and justifiably so. Once again, though, most people like meat, and so a low-impact way to create something that will more than likely be an occasional treat will be a great morale booster.
The people working for NASA are no fools, they're not putting all their eggs in one basket. Sure this one research lab is working on ways to create meat suitable for space travel, but the lab down the hall is probably working on good tasting vegetable-based meals. It's all a matter of personal preference and taste.
Besides, there are people who do develop allergies to plant-based proteins as well; I think you'd agree that it's a good idea to have a contingency plan in place before any problems develop. This, if anything else, could be a contingency plan if someone were to develop an allergy to the primary protein source - just move them over to a fish-based diet and let the mission continue without many worries about allergic reactions.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Listening to self righteous Vegans is nearly as bad as having to put up with the bollocks spouted by the wilder christian sects, endless moronic repetition that we are all destined for hellfire because we are catholic, protestant, gay, black, white, jewish, hindu, moslem, having sex before marriage, single mothers, shopping on Sundays/whatever.
You cannot rationally argue with these headcases, its a religion, an article of faith, they are fscked in the head every bit as bad as members of the LCC, CoS, Moonies or any other cult.
The nonsense that we cannot be meat eaters if the planets population reaches [INSERT LARGE FIGURE HERE] has been repeated by their ilk for well over 150 years now. I believe the figure originally started at a billion and has to be adjusted up each time the the past assertions have been exposed as utter bollocks.
Any person who would take the rantings of Peter Singer seriously should be made to pay dearly for advocating the fascism of the 'animal rights' movement.
No animal tested drugs, no medicines, no welfare benefits paid out of taxes raised by folks and their businesses you would destroy in the name of cute little animals, for you or any hellspawn you breed.
You want to condemn the world back to a medieval hell where a simple infection ment death, its only fair that you should be hoisted on your own petard and try that road yourself first.
The cure for the comfortable urban middle classes who make up the vast majority of proselytizeing Veganism (Note I did not say vegetarian), is to be dumped say for 18 months onto an Ant/Artic island full of 'Ohhh So Cute' seals/penguins armed with nothing but a blunt hatchet.
Homo-Sapiens, like a lot of members of the ape family is an omnivore, live with it.
Curmudgeon