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Engineering the $325,000 Burger
Dr. Mark Post hopes to bring the dream of cultured meat one step closer to reality when he unveils his high tech hamburger in London. The five ounce burger is composed of 20,000 strips of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory at a cost of $325,000 (provided by an anonymous donor.) From the article: "The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world — including potential sources of research funds — that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality."
You get lots of fries for that price
(And your coke in a real glass, not a plastic cup)
Does this meat technically qualify as vegetarian, as no animal was killed to make it?
Only on
This might be a very cardboard and dry burger - all meat tissues, no fat.
Japanese would prefer something of quality and not just because something is expensive. They have their Kobe beef. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef
Q: How can you know why somebody is a vegan?
A: Don't worry. He'll tell you.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Yeah, just because the first computer took millions to build and maintain didn't make it real.
Why are you so negative about lab grown meat? No more animal suffering, a lot less impact on the environment, what's not to like?
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
The price is perfectly realistic, really; in fact, it's quite well thought-out. By the time these are ready for large-scale roll-out, inflation will have caught up nicely.
GMO agriculture by a fascist system (Monsanto and govt) HFCS in one form or another is in almost everything, now this (lab grown meat), i seen enough of this planet and i want off
The upside is that you're still going to be able to have burgers without having to figure out how to herd cattle in space.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAFO
Yup, not cultured at all.
Mostly random stuff.
Ted: "We're talking about growing meat in a lab without cows."
Linda: "Ugh! That's creepy!... Right?... Oh, I see, we're doing that."
Artificial Beef Taste Tester: "It tastes... familiar..."
Ted: "Beef?"
Taste Tester: "No..."
Linda: "Chicken? We'll take chicken."
Taste Tester: Shakes his head
Ted: "What does it taste like?"
Taste Tester: "Despair?"
Ted: "Is it possible it just needs salt?"
Taste Tester: Shakes his head very slowly
Better Off Ted, Season 1 Episode 2
First they replaced my natural flavor with imitation, and I ate it anyways.
Second they replaced sugar with corn syrup, and I kept on getting fatter.
Then they replaced my natural crops with genetic modified crops, and I kept eating.
Now they are trying to replace my natural cow grown meat with vat grown meat? WTF?
When will this stop? We are very close to losing bacon in the name of progress.
Think of the bacon, this must be stopped.
Be seeing you...
Eventually there could be several advantages over your "real" burger actually.
1) No need to grind it up. Grow it in the proper shape/texture and cook.
2) You can cook it as rare as you like.
3) Get the exact amount of fat you want so your burger is in fact juicy.
4) High quality cuts might be mass producible.
Don't jump to conclusions. Every attempt I've ever heard of at cultured meat, or any other tissue for that matter, has been highly dependent upon nutrient solutions derived from living animals. Many are based on animal blood, some on liver or other tissue. I'd bet far FAR more animals went into this over prices burger than would have been necessary for the McDonalds my family had for lunch yesterday.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
Were you a slave-owner in a previous life?
It's not my fault if my employees fail to negotiate good working conditions.
As per the wiki article, the Tajima cow is the only cow considered for this meat, what it fails to mention is that the Tajima is just an Angus, and indeed an Angus that is brought up in conditions I do not agree with. They are brought up in a very small area, not allowed to exercise so as to get that delicious marbling. After visiting these farms I feel much better about how my cows are brought up in Australia, with one cow having an average of 2 acres as opposed to 20 square feet.
Anyway, rant aside Kobe beef just isn't all that good in comparison to the other meats available in Japan as they're all the same damned breed being brought up exactly the same, Japanese tradition just dictates that it's more expensive and 'better'.
Anonymous McDonor?