Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Scientist Creates Meat Substitute From Sewage
An anonymous reader writes "Hold on to your hamburgers — Japanese scientist Mitsyuki Ikeda at the Environmental Assessment Center in Okayama has invented an artificial meat substitute made from human feces. The unseemly meal is made by extracting protein and lipids from 'sewage mud.' The lipids are then combined with a reaction enhancer and whipped into 'meat' in an exploder. Ikeda makes the 'meat' more palatable by adding things like soy protein."
Hey, is that corn?!
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Disgusting. I'd rather eat soylent green.
suddenly sounds reassuring
i'd rather be a cannibal than a shit eater
although we do have the basis of a plot here for "human centipede 3"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It's called a dildo.
Try dericious shitty meat!
So say we all?
We're always seeing people eating strange things, whether it be fish that may or may not be lethal, to tasties like cow brains and pig testicles, this will be no different. There will be some that will eat it. If nothing else, ship it to people that would much prefer turdburgers to starvation. But the start will probably just be people eating it for the shock/novelty value.
The scientist says his goal is to make it the same price as regular meat... I think they're going to have to go a little better than that, make it cheaper. If you can drop the cost per calorie/nutrient down to at least that of say, grain, it'd be an ideal foodsource for places that need food relief. Right now they don't see meat because of cost - grain is still their cheapest alternative. This would be a lot higher in protein, so if they could at least match the cost, that'd be a hit.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
will there be a beverage made from urine?
Already there... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQB8mSwPDdo
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
Eat shit and don't die!
This looks perfect for a Japanese gameshow.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Why does he need a pointer with a plastic hand to point at something clearly within his reach?
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
Another solution to the global food crisis is to stop having massive freakin steaming piles of babies. (*Gives various religious doctrines a condemning glare*).. Further developing the pwned world would probably go a long way too.. If everyone can afford an xbox, they'll be too busy getting killed playing Halo to go reproduce. AHh, forget it, let's just chow down on some shit-jerky and "go to town"..
The breath mint industry probably paid for this research.
From the video: "Once the research is complete and it's put on the market we'll probably be able to price it at roughly the same level as normal meat." Hmm, should I buy the ribeye or the extruded soy-supplemented feces meat? At the same price, the choice is so difficult....
Like puzzle games? Warehouse51 for iOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP_nNemsNT8
They even suggested a pipe line between the US and developping countries, to convey the "food".
They only thing they failed to predict was the state of the US economy, which may require to operate the pipeline in reverse.
Recycling nutrients for space travel is essential. Astronauts already drink water that is extracting from human urine. Extracting proteins and lipids from human waste could be just as important.
PETA can finally have their meat.
Once I think I've gotten used to the weirdness that comes out of Japan -- they go and top themselves.
I suppose they'll be coming out with Tentacle and Used Panty flavored Shit-Meat® in short order
That finger pointer is disturbing!
There are lots of strange things that can be made edible (snails, bugs, pond-scum, dogs, cats, etc).
Why choose what is probably the most disgusting choice, excrement? And if you have to choose excrement, why does it have to be "human" excrement?
TFA even shows the scientist with a bag labelled "shit burgers"! This sounds totally like an attempt at simply getting some hits on You Tube.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
It was inevitable. (*sheds a tear*)
Wow, that's not the movie I saw. I could see eating people, but shit? Nah, this sequel will never work.
Googling the researcher's name and his institution only brings up this story. Looks like you someone successfully trolled slashdot.
So now with a bit of infrastructure investment, MacDonalds can hook their kitchens up to their bathrooms and voila : a perpetual motion machine.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
McDonalds has been doing this for years.
Just no. If it comes down to me eating my own shit (reprocessed or not) or death... well, it would be a tough decision.
today is spelling optional day.
This reminds me so much of elementary school recess.
"I'll give you my snack if you eat a bug, Timmy"
"No, I don't want to"
"What are you a wuss? It's just a bug"
(kids start chanting)
"Eat a bug!"
"Eat a bug!"
"EAT A BUG!"
Timmy eats the bug.
Timmy is still known as "that kid that ate the bug" at the 50'th anniversary high school reunion.
--
BMO
What if the 'feces producer' was a vegetarian ?
Now that's the SHIT!
-- Brought to you by Carl's JR
The Chinese are already eating sewage oil actually http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983/China-goes-organic-after-scandal-of-cooking-oil-from-sewers.html
The Yes Men beat them to it already
Even at 10x the price of regular meat it is the ONLY meat, aside from human placenta, vegans could eat. That in itself could be a market, even if it is a terrible one.
If you try it and don't like it, you can always say "that burger was shit!" :-P
It was some years ago now, but i want everyone to know that i (*me*) devised a method for the reverse process. I'm still seeking my patent on the methodology.
I guess if you put it on toast, it really will be Shit on a Shingle.
Introducing the HUMANCENTiPad2.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I believe they call it "hot dog".
As anybody who's an old hand at EVE probably realized: This stuff is Protein Delicacies!
Why stop there? We could be feasting on the shit of all creatures on earth! Mmm endangered tiger poo.
Soylent brown is made of... eww...
I hope they only plan to feed this to animals that they hate.
I have a question. Why would anyone even *work* on this? I mean, were scientists sitting at lunch kicking around ideas, and one of them picked up his Pulled Pork sandwich, and said "Heyyyyyyy, I just got a thought..."
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Odd, I could have sworn there was something like this already...... AH! Right. "Tofu."
If I had to choose between shit burger and tofu? "Shit burger and a crab juice please."
This is most certainly a joke, like the reBurger from Yes Men. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTG6sGX-Ic
This must taste like Cuttlefish & Asparagus.
A few things to consider
1. The price of meat is more expensive in Japan then most countries. So saying they'll get the costs down that of japanese meat isn't really a draw card for most other western/american nations.
2. Compleating the food cycle? I thought we got mad-cow disease because we did this very thing with cows. We reduced the food chain and had cows eating cows, Rather then having intermedate agents inbetween.
Now we want to mimic that efficency with humans eating human shit...
To avoid criticism; Say nothing, Do nothing, Be nothing.
Eat recycled food. It's good for the environment, and OK for you!
if (it != oneThing) it = another;
I think I need one of those in my lab. But for now, I'll pass on the s**tburgers. I could get over the aesthetics, but TFA didn't convince me that viruses are eliminated from the raw materials.
Now, the next time I watch Full Metal Jacket, I will be reminded of this article when the line comes up, "It's a big shit sandwich, and everyone has to take a bite."
This space unintentionally left blank.
Are you kidding me!!! I don't care if it's safe or not I'm not eating a shit burger. WOW, another failure for the Jap's.
"the major problem is the psychological barrier"
well, no shit!
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
I'm pretty sure my high school cafeteria was doing that in the 80's!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This gives a whole new meaning to "Eat shit!!!"
Let's posit your idealised government with idealised economics. Let's also posit a perfectly efficient distribution method, let's move most cities off the arable land they sit on and into less 'useful' regions. Now we can support an even greater population.
Which we will proceed to reach and then attempt to exceed as we have done every other time the constraints on food have been lifted.
Until we consciously and deliberately manage our populations, then we are going to keep seeing 'food crises'. Increasing the food supply, food distribution or even quality of food is not going to change that.
If you want to solve the global food crisis, adopt socialistic policies
Don't get me wrong, I tend towards the socialist end of the spectrum politically and philosophically, but if you _really_ want to solve the food crises, activate for increased levels of education (this has a high correlation with lowered birth rates) and against social and cultural mores that put a premium on multiple children and/or reject contraception.
... at meat substitute.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Currently it costs roughly 10 to 20 times the normal cost of real meat (granted due to research), and once all is said and done, not only will it not be cheaper than regular meat, but it will be around the same price.
What incentive would there be for someone decide to eat turds over meat again? You can't play the vegetarian card, I doubt you could play the taste card, I mean if it were half the price of meat or lower then maybe I can see a market, but the only market I can see is those kind of people who like to crawl in mobile outhouses and just...wait.
What amazes me is they actually label it "poop burger" (unko baagaa) on the white board (when he uses the lady-finger pointer).
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
The Yes Men did this with re-Burger long ago.
The WTO experimented with the McDung, Re-burger, and File-O-Feces sandwiches years ago!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379593/
From your link (emphasis mine):
Storyline
A comedic documentary which follows The Yes Men, a small group of prankster activists, as they gain world-wide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on television and at business conferences around the world. [...]
PooFu?
Yeah, they should call it the Re-Burger. :-D I wonder if that inspired the research?
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
The existing meat industry has a huge problem fecal contamination of meat already without adding the more direct risk of actually making meat from it. We're eating traces of cow/chicken/pig shit all the time and don't realise it. The more processed the meat (ie sausage) the more fecal contamination.
(Faeces already being the primary source of E. Coli as food borne pathogen for example).
Now a good fraction of gastric poisoning cases are fecal-oral route of human to human transmission (Which is why you must always wash your freaking hands). If you've ever been part of a norovirus outbreak you'll know how easily it spreads, thats from traces of shit getting eaten.
If you or anyone you know has had food poisoning, norovirus, or the incredibly common rotavirus etc. they've most certainly ingested a trace of someone elses fecal matter, which we all must do indirectly quite often.
We're routinely literally eating shit anyway.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Posting to highlight parent's wit.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
A shit sandwich?
How is this different from current meat substitutes?
A couple of thoughts...
Presumably the "market" (as if there is one) for this would be (1) end of the world crowd when their is really no alternative (2) a replacement for tofurkey and the like. In option 1 I choose death. In option 2 I would just like to point out that I eat meat, if you take my "left overs" and turn that into "meat alternative" then you still have meat, albeit pre-digested.
Nothing good can come from this research. I don't care if it cures cancer, still not worth it.
$diff terrorists hippies
$
$rm -rf *terrorists *hippies
Of course you don't get 100% of the nutrients out the other end. If you decrease the amount of meat humans consume by only 20%, that has a *very* significant impact on the environment.
I laughed because I thought you were making this up, but...
http://www.chacha.com/question/is-there-poop-in-mcdonalds-meat
This is apparently an story that has resurface around the web. Only this time it's gotten more attention. Googling with various date range and looking for "Environmental Assessment Center, Okayama, Japan" - "Mitsuyuki Ikeda" gets the same story popping up all the way back to a L.A. Times article dated 1993, and shows an enormous absence fact checking since.
...
From News of the Weird | News of the Weird | Chicago Reader - Related web pages
www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/news-of-the ... "
..."
" 2007 Sep 27, 2007 - The Environmental Assessment Center in Okayama Japan announced in October that it had manufactured an experimental sausage by adding soybean protein and steak flavoring tosewage solids from TokyoSewage isnt really such a dangerous and dirty thing said a spokesman However he did not
Check this http://www.google.com/search?q=Environmental+Assessment+Center,+Okayama,+Japan&hl=en&biw=1062&bih=543&prmd=ivns&sa=X&ei=OoD5TbWtNcTTiALGx9DnBA&ved=0CDgQpQI&tbm=&tbs=tl:1,tlul:1990,tluh:2010
http://www.greenkampong.com/food/scientists-makes-meat-from-poo/
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=119734.0 (2009)
http://absolutelyfobulous.com/2009/09/03/ooey-gooey-poop-burger/ (1993!!!!)
"Dec 30, 1993 - In October the Environmental Assessment Center in Okayama Japan announced that it had managed to make a sausage out of recycled Tokyo sewage by adding soybean protein and beef flavoring The company does not plan to market the product commercially however citing the main
So it is a genuine news story? Not sure, but smells very fake. Although both the alleged researcher and the organisation do have other mentions on the internet, only the organisation seems to be genuine.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
A new meat substitute to finally end the controversy of using corn meal, sand, and cow brains and intensives dyed with carmal to make it look like real ground beef.
Or Walmart will jump on it and sell it for DIRT CHEAP and of course people who are frugal will jump on it. LOL
Shudder
http://saveie6.com/
Why not just eat an actual steak?
Seriously. Shit burger? You've got to be kidding me.
It's not even like it's going to be cheaper. The professor believes that it will be the same price as real meat if he can bring it to market.
Wait, is this a delayed April 1 joke?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Skimming over the article tags my tired eyes momentarily interpreted "biotech" as "blech"; how appropriate.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
- "Poo: the other brown meat."
- "Shit's what's for dinner".
- "Just like mom used to make."
- Dr Anus: "respect the anus." (Burger King)
- "Ohh ahh oh ploppin' fresh dough"
- "D is for dookie and that's good enough for me."
- "It's like there's a potty in my mouth"
A man walks up to a table in the supermarket with a sign that says "FREE HORS D'OEUVRES"
"Can I try one?"
"Sure!" Attendant hands him a cracker covered with brown paste...
"This tastes like shit!"
"It is shit! Want to buy a toothbrush?"
...to the phrase shit sandwich.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
I wonder how many times this.. ehh... product? can be recycled before it turns in to heavy metal?
Yikes
Eww. Is this a perpetual mobile food solution for Mars? Count me out - I want my food to be at least a some plant and fauna cycles away from the waste products..
Insert
to your local fast food restaurant!
There's a manga about this. In the future earth is overpopulated. Japanese scientists biongineer some organism that eats up garbage and they can use as a food source. Then it goes rogue, takes over the building and eats people. They bring in an american-developped biongineered waste-disposal-food-source-monster to eat it. Some people are in the building. I stopped reading after that.
This is old news : I remember having read this news at least some 20 years ago !
( in a scientific magazine, not on /. )
and their sausages.
Every year people put crap in their gardens, and, a few months later, edible plants magically appear!
Nonaggression works!
sewage->compost->plants->cow-> STEAK!
Who would eat this slop? What a waste of money and time
- I've got bad karma because I won't parrot everyone else's opinion
I..I like Engl^H^H^H^HJapan just fine... but I ain't eating any 'o that beef!
Not a big deal, my university cafeteria was doing this years ago. Overall, a lot tastier than their Soylent Green burgers.
[Insert pithy quote here]
...telling somebody to eat shit and die.
...of using grass and cows to accomplish the transformation?
That's just disgusting, no matter how much processing is involved. Ugh. However, when you really think about it, it it all that terribly different from water treatment? The same water you drank today, brushed your teeth with, washed your dishes and clothes with, and showered in, is the essentially the same toilet water someone had diarrhea in two weeks ago. Still, I'll pass.
What would worry me though, is if 25 years from now the process is not only approved and being used in Japan but also underway in other countries such as mine as well, and that the FDA (and other organizations) allow it's use as "byproduct" to pad normal meat such as hamburger, where it could be mixed in; you might not even know it, or even have a choice, unless you got all your hamburger right from a butcher, which could get kinda pricey.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
You Japs are real fuckers, you know that?
Boredom is bliss.
This is horrible but I can't stop smiling. What is wrong with me?
"No good deed goes unpunished"
...infinite poop?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Austin: "This burger tastes like shit!"
Nigel: "Austin, it is shit!"
Austin: "Oh, so it's not just me, then. It's a bit nutty."
/* No Comment */
Waiter: Welcome to the Gastrointestinal Cafe, Might I recommend the crap-cakes, or perhaps our famous vegetarian scat-burger? – it’s wonderful! Customer: Can you tell me what district you get your sewage from, sir? Waiter: I can assure you it comes from a strictly upper-class community of people with good taste. Also.. Customer: Sounds fine. Does it come with freedom-fries? Waiter: [*smiles and winks*] It wouldn’t be a scat-burger if it didn’t! An extra larger portion actually, with our special dipping Customer: That’ll do. And I’ll have it medium-well too. I just don’t trust rare, no matter who it comes from. Waiter: [*all smiles*] I understand – that’s how I like it too. Customer: And how about your beer menu? Waiter: Oh, for imports we have carbonated urine from France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, and our domestic list includes Milwaukee, Florid Customer: I prefer the real thing; just gimmie a Bud Light in the can. Florida right? Waiter: Yes, and an excellent choice sir; the foreign urine brewing process still hasn’t caught up with Bud. And would you like to try our frumunda-cheese and crackers? It is extracted from selected NFL football champions and is. Customer: ..No, I think that should do. Could you by any chance put in a request for the ass-machine to play the latest Justin Bieber song? I just can’t get it out of my head since arriving here at the port o’let resort. And it’s so catchy!
Waiter: [*smiles*] We’ll have a busboy gas it up right away, but it may take a while – we usually don’t get such shitty requests.
Customer: Thanks so much.
Waiter: If there’s anything else you need, just ask.
Customer: [*reclines in chair, thinks*] “this is the life”. [*fart noises fill the air, and he begins to sing along*]
Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck