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Slashdot Asks: Would You Eat Lab-Grown Meat? (dmarge.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via WIRED: Lab-grown meat appears to be coming to a supermarket near you whether you like it or not. Granted, you have some time before that becomes a reality. Scientists in Belgium and the United States are working on cultured meat substitutes that taste like real meat and cost less than real meat, but don't use as many environmental resources as meat from animals, nor does it involve the slaughtering of animals. They predict such meat substitutes will cost a lot less by the year 2020 when the efficiency of bulk production kicks in. According to a 2014 Pew poll, only 20 percent of Americans would be willing to try cultured meat, while a 2013 survey in Belgium revealed that just 13 percent of 180 subjects knew what cultured meat was. Also, vegetarians surveyed perceived man-made meat to be unhealthy and unfavorable. However, once respondents were told how the meat is grown, most said they might try it. When educated about the environmental benefits, the number of people who were willing to try it nearly doubled. A poll from The Vegan Scholar found that lab-grown meat was much more appealing to vegetarians than to vegans. Similar Reddit and SurveyMonkey polls have come to similar conclusions, but it's important to note that none of these polls were peer-reviewed. Researchers have suggested that the media greatly overestimates the importance of vegetarian and vegan opinions on lab-grown meat. Given the lack of large surveys determining the public's opinion on lab-grown meat, we thought we would pose the question to Slashdotters: Would you eat lab-grown meat?
with soylent
Raise pigs in a lab? What's the problem? I'd eat them.
I'd need a _big_ lab to raise some blue whale for steaks.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Cheaper, more energy efficient, and before long superior in taste and tone. Slam dunk.
I can just imagine cutting a slice off a 1'x2' meat beam; cover THE ENTIRE GRILL with a fillet. Yums, yums.
If it's cheap and healthy and tastes good.. Why not?
In fact, I am looking forward to it. I do not like how animals are treated, in general, and in order to provide meat for us, in particular. However, I love meat, and I can't wait for meat synthetically grown in a lab to become available. It will of course be outrageously expensive to begin with, but hopefully it will not take too long for prices to come down to something reasonable. At any rate, I'd be willing to pay a premium for it.
If so, why not eat it? The only problem is the fragile infrastructure needs to produce it, whereas farm grown meat can be grown in a pasture with relatively little assistance.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Just do yourself a favor and quit eating meat . . ahem . . . cold-turkey.
Yes.
All your database are belong to U.S.
I absolutely would. I live almost entirely off meat most of the time. I like animals, but not as much as I like meat. So the ability to have meat without the ethical implications would be great.
Then there are the practical considerations. I assume that lab-grown meat could be grown nearly "perfect," in terms of flavor, texture, etc. You're not gunna grow "Choice" steak, you're gunna grow "Prime." So you could get better meat for less price, and with better health and disease controls.
There's also the fact that with control over the growing process, you wouldn't need the artificial hormones and antibiotics used in large scale meat production, which would help everyone in terms of creeping drug resistance.
For many affording any food is becoming an issue, so if the lab-grown meat is cheap enough then they will eat it as it will be what they can afford.
Yes I would. Next question?
At present, I probably wouldn't eat cultured tissue just because it's wildly expensive and only available in teeny little bits because the cardiovascular system is there for a reason in mammals; but if the tech were worked out what possible objection would there be to it?
Cruelty-free, so long as you don't grow the brain; and quite probably a lot cleaner than the authentically-butchered-in-its-own-entrails-and-hopefully-not-too-feces-smeared natural stuff. Less chance to pick up cool parasites and stuff in the field as well.
I eat hot dogs right now. *Of course* I would eat lab grown meat especially if it was cheaper. I would eat *more* meat if it was cheaper.
Specially if it ends up costing a fraction of the "real deal".
If was traveling in a space ship to Mars: Yes.
If was living on Mars: Yes.
Otherwise: no way.
I'm not "addicted" to meat. I eat what I find tasty an what I consider ethical ok.
And no: I don't eat tofu meat Ersatz either.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I'm assuming it tastes like chicken, in which case put me down for "yes".
If it tastes like beef, well, that's another yes.
Pork? mmmm... No, I think not.
Rubber? Definite no for that.
Any other options to be considered? Doubt they'd start with alligator (which would be a "yes") or salmon (another "yes") or elephant ("maybe?")....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I am not as radical as most vegetarians about this stuff with being cruel to animals and stuff, but I do care about the environment, and having lab grown meat on the table would mean that we could use the resources on the earth more effectively. Already now we know that the developing countries rather shouldn't adopt the meat eating habits of the western world.
So yes, its a good idea. Would I eat it? If it will taste as good as real meat, then yes.
So definitely a thing to look forward to.
My goal is to kill what I eat with my own hands. I have no interest.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Perfectly marbled meat that was grown without hormones in pollution free environment, I'd take lab-grown meat over a beef that was stuck in a manure infested cage for the life of it.
Right now the goal is to create a good product. Once products hit the shelves lab meat will be created by companies with a profit to make. Excluding the whole animal path might reduce resources, but also creates even more opportunity to cut corners. Harmful mutations that might have killed the animal now have to be caught by quality control / law enforcement.
If you think corporate ethics or inspections will prevent this from happening, Google for 'horse meat scandal'...
I'd rather have 2/3 of humanity starve to death before I support any GMO.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
At fIrst I'd only eat a bit here and there and let other people pig out on it for a few years so they come down with any issues first.
(I've already pulled by weight as guinea pig by over-consuming artificial sweeteners)
Someone had to do it.
Watch that 20% balloon if it ever gets cheaper than the real thing. There are people on food stamps and in college just waiting for this, even if it sucks. Just about everyone will try it, and if it's not total garbage, I'd bet about 80% stick with it. That number will probably wind up fluctuating in lockstep with unemployment rates.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
215,000 british pounds for a hamburger.
Whether grown in a cow or in a lab, a liver is a liver, a heart is a heart, and muscle is muscle. So yeah, I'd eat it.
You'll be able to eat rhinoceros meat or have a bald eagle meat sandwich.
People will eat it if it is cheaper and reasonable tasting.
My issue is that I'm old-school and think that generally meat tastes better on the fatty side and cooked on the bone, but I'm probably in the minority. For those that prefer sterile low-fat off-the-bone preparations, it'll probably get good enough, soon enough.
I suspect that early on it won't be that much different than the relationship of Crab and Surimi/Krab. Maybe it will get better over time.
In China, the spread of Buddhism basically lead to all sorts of mock-meat products (mostly made of tofu, tempeh, fried-gluten) which people eat regularly even if not vegetarian, so as long as it's tasty, I suspect this lab-grown meat will have enough of a following until it gets entrenched and you can't even order the real thing for some dishes anymore except in a high-end restaurant.
Think about it this way, most people that eat a fair amount of meat on a regular basis will generally unquestioningly eat a sausage or hot-dog when given an opportunity. I think that says it all.
But if the purveyors of this lab-meat try to tackle it from the premium eco-angle, I suspect it will get crushed like synthetic diamonds (which even though are superior in every possible metric to conflict or deBeers diamonds, are perceived to be less desirable and thus unmarketable).
Chickienobs!
Most people who live in metropolitan areas won't have a choice, unless you are out killing your neighbors for lunch.
Color me shocked :P
i would definitely try it if it was "safe" and see if it tastes just as good, if so why not?!
If in 1995 you had been asked to surrender effectively all privacy in return for "free" email and access to a new on-line forum, how many people would have said "Sure! - and take pictures of my home; plant a GPS on me; collect all my contact information for friends and family so you can cross correlate them and their consumer habits, too"?
Not many, I expect. But here we are. Humans are pretty freaking easy to convince, especially with peer pressure.
I predict you will be lining up to eat lab-grown meat by 2021. Your "friends" will "like" that!
I already eat very questionable engineered meat, so I don't see much downside to the idea of cruelty free chicken McNuggets.
Why wouldn't I? Some irrational fear of science? Billions of people eat completely artificial foods of various shapes, ingredients and consistently every day. Yes, as long as it tasted good of course I'd eat it. And if it helps us save resources and reduce the amount of methane being produced it's a win win.
How could no one else have said this already?
It must be!
Then hell yes. I've been waiting for this ever since I saw Leeloo Dallas use a microwave. CHEEK-ON!
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
I don't have a problem with GMO food, but IMHO vat grown meat is a huge departure from what we usually eat. I'd try it, but I'd probably be cautious eating a lot of it until maybe 10-20 years after it came on the market.
Then again, according to the insurance companies there's a 50% chance I'll be dead in 15 years.
Eventually, lab-grown meat-like mystery goo will be better tasting, cheaper, healthier, disease/parasite-free, nicely textured, and more conveniently shaped compared to meat grown from real live animals tortured in cramped, feces-covered pens. Also when compared to grass-fed, free-range, hippie-approved animals. Everyone will be eating it except for a few crazy people.
Of course, in the beginning it will be over-priced, foul-tasting paste.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Realistically, I think this stuff will be cheap and nasty in its raw form, but if you add enough salt and spices (think sausage) then it would be palatable. Under those circumstances, I think it will be successful. People eat all kinds of packaged processed garbage. Are Doritos even food? This isn't any different or worse, as long as the health and safety issues are addressed. Given the amount of dangerous bacteria in the American meat processing pipeline, this stuff could potentially be healthier; we'll see.
This stuff will not ever replace a fine quality real steak, properly cooked. That will become a more expensive niche product, that's sold in smaller quantities than today, but it won't go away.
part by part. it does not make it smart, nor is it certain you have side effects in old age.
stupid idea.
I tried my first veggie burger about 20 years ago, and I remember wondering when the FDA started considering sawdust a vegetable...
Now, I eat Gardein teriyaki chick'n and a few others quite regularly. I'm still waiting for the whole "cheaper than meat" part to kick in though.
If you haven't had them yet, give them a try, you'll be surprised, and once they get costs down, it'll change the world.
not very much anyway. What made food prices spike was George Bush Jr deregulating the commodities market. You used to have to take possession of a commodity before you could sell/trade in it. Bush Jr did away with that. It's up there with Iraq and New Orleans for worst things he did in his presidency. Now we've got billionaires skimming 20% off the top of our food supply while adding no value/security to the farmers. They're just rent seeking parasites.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Therefore, I prefer to eat those who prey on sentient beings and refuse to eat vegetarians.
If this does in fact come to a store near me, and I am still actually able to taste things [I am slowly losing my sense of taste] I would give it a try. I don't really care where my meat comes from as long as it tastes good to me at the time and if I eventually lose my sense of taste then it won't really matter to me at all and I'd actually prefer not having to kill the planet and a bunch of animals to feed me. So yah, sure, I'd give it a shot.
Lexmark Meat Printer $199 @ Wal-Mart. Get'em while they are hot!!
If you have to kill and clean cut and wrap the animal or eat this which do you choose.
People eat McDonald's. They eat that, they'll eat anything.
Once people mocked black who were slaves but that's no longer socially acceptable. Expect for the US south, the rest of the world only gave up slavery when they were no longer financially dependent on it.
Today we make "Bacon" jokes and it's a meme laugh at pigs who are about to go off to make it. One day will we eat lab meat and cringe at the time when people killed and ate animals and mocked them too? http://weknowmemes.com/2013/04...
I am a happy carnivore, and that is what people are designed to eat along with our veggies, but I'm also an animal lover. To have lab grown meat would be to eliminate the least pleasant part of the process.
As well, people who like to eat exotic critters will be able to eat Wombat meat, People that believe eating the penises of animals puts lead in their pencils will be able to eat lab grown rhinoceros dingus. Why cannibals..... nah, let's not go there.
But seriously, this should remove any ethical vegan objections, as the animals that contribute the meat stock won't be harmed.
Furthermore, We might try growing lab grown Rhino horn, or Elephant tusks.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
How long after this is feasible... will there be places you can buy "people steaks"?
Would it be unethical, if the person who provided the cell line was still alive?
most definitely
Does it have electrolytes?
I eat lab-grown meat every day.
If you think that hamburger wasn't lab-grown you are wrong. Just because a cow lives in a feed lot doesn't mean it isn't a lab specimen.
Those things are scientifically bred, fed, and shed. Agriculture is a high tech industry. Ranchers track a surprising amount of data on their herds. Big Farma tracks the effects of weather, birth week, feed supplements, roaming waypoints, water consumption, genetics, and dozens of other factors. They experiment. They explore. That cowboy hat doesn't look like a lab coat, but don't be surprised to find advanced biology and other science degrees under the brim. And they can work statistics like their livelihood depended on it.
Every cow in the herd is part of a study group, somehow. They are divided into all sorts of control groups. And the data are studied and evaluated and used to change ranchers' techniques. And the guy in Brazil is watching the guy in Montana, too. And they both follow the study in Australia.
If you think you can just buy any old cow out of Nebraska and start a ranch to compete biologically with today's suppliers, you're in for a shock. Anything you buy today--you could buy the best herd in the world lock, stock, and barrel--will be behind the times in 10 years. If you don't apply rigorous science to the maintenance of your herd, you won't keep up.
And we haven't even mentioned chickens yet.
And I'd sue any one or business that tried to serve it to me.
But then again I'm vegan and haven't eaten meat for ~30 years and animal products for half my life (37 as of ~today.)
As long as it's grown in animal broth of some form I of course won't eat it and to me it won't make much difference though it may use up some left-overs then I guess. It would had to be feed nutrients of synthetic origin or vegetarian origin but then there's a cell aspect.
I'm a person who have had a hard time deciding whatever to eat mushrooms or not =P
But it no new cells are added into the mix but I guess they may be occasionally .. I don't know. Then again do I even need the product?
But a pure protein source is of course nice as is B12 & D3 vitamin and sources of EPA and DHA fatty acids.
Why would we need yet-another techno-heavy alternative to vegetarianism? Not eating meat is simple, is easy, is less expensive, does not require huge labs, is healthy, and is also tasty. Do we really want Bayer or Pfizer to build meat-producing labs just near their cancer and diabetes-medicine producing facilities?
it'll probably taste like shit, so only if there's no real stuff around. It's unscientific, but fresh tomatoes from my own plants taste better than even 'local' farmers market stuff, free range eggs taste better than factory farm stuff, and my assumption is that the large scale fabrication of lab grown meat will be driven by cost and safety (in some order of precedence), not by taste.
Environment impact of eating meat with growing population is not sustainable. Distant future looks bleak, with no meat at all (at least at an affordable price).
Cultured meat seems the only option to retain meat in our diet in the future, hence I am all in favor of it.
Same taste. Same mounthfeel. Reasonable price.
Yeah, probably.
My guess is no.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Never.
If it's lab grown then engineer it to taste better, even at the cost of healthiness. Then introduce low fat variants
Twinstiq, game news
vegs/fruits. i don't think animals cross-polinate backwards to them as much as forwards.
I have a related suggestion.
If a person lives in a non-swing state (of either persuasion), as I do, then please think about throwing your vote to Stein or Johnson (or Sanders if that becomes a possibility, though I doubt it now) if you can't stomach Trump or Clinton, particularly if you disagree with your state's predictable bias.
Inasmuch as the state's outcome is a foregone conclusion, no harm in doing this. If the idea spreads a bit, it could result in a larger amplitude signal, which — if nothing else — may cause a few people to consider the issues a little differently.
--fyngyrz
anon due to mod points and stupid slashcode
I went vegan about two years ago. I have never eaten better.
No interest in eating meat, lab grown or otherwise.
Good luck getting it to taste exactly like the real thing to all you folks salivating over huge perfect cuts. More like enjoy your creamy wheat, or at least we think it tastes like creamy wheat.
See, during the Great Depression, the U.S. didn't produce enough food to feed everyone. People went hungry, or even starved. To prevent that from ever happening again, the government introduced agricultural subsidies to guarantee there's always an oversupply of food. That's why we pay farmers to not farm - so that they don't sell their farmland to a condo developer, so if a blight makes a field unusable in another part of the country, their farmland is ready to produce at a moment's notice.
Anyhow, this oversupply meant the price of food cratered (supply > demand does that), and farmers were losing their shirts. So the government instituted a program where it would buy up all the crop at a guaranteed price, then the buyers could buy it from the government. This worked at stabilizing prices so the farmers could stay in business, but it still left a huge oversupply - mostly corn. So the government had to figure out what to do with all that excess corn.
Some of it got shipped overseas as foreign aid. Some of it got turned into cheap meal for cattle, since Americans love beef. An enterprising scientists figured out how to convert it into high fructose syrup, which could substitute for sucrose since sugar cane only grows in Florida and Hawaii and we'd otherwise be importing most of it.
And during the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, someone said, "hey, what if we converted it to alcohol and used it as a substitute for gasoline?"
It made sense then. This was a sunk cost - the money and energy to grow the corn had already been spent. We weren't getting it back. So anything we could do with the corn to recoup some of those sunk costs made more sense than letting it rot in grain silos allowing the rodent population to increase.
So converting excess corn into ethanol makes sense. But then the corn lobby got its hands on the program and now we grow corn for the explicit purpose of converting it to ethanol. Which makes no sense since corn is a lousy crop for converting into ethanol.
Yes!
Yes, I would eat it. I have been tracking the development of this for some time, and I look forward to the time when I can feed myself without that meaning another living being has to die for it.
They will cost-reduce the product until you are eating crap.
If it saves enough trees, who knows, maybe we'll have our cheap burgers and our rainforests yet.
I'll probably skip it while it's still in the labs, but I'll be one of the first to plant my meat tree. I can't wait until we have plants where you can cut off a stem and you get a full hamburger ready to eat.
* pigs
* cows
* chicken
* corn
* apples
* strawberries
All of those are "fabricated" to produce most possible.
* potatoes
* tomatoes
Which are native to American continent
If the production process is okay and there are no weird chemicals in the final product it may be a very good solution.
No. Nope. Non. Nein. Njet.
In spite of all the effort, all meat substitute I tried none of them tasted like real meat. That *may* be OK for people which don't care much for taste or quality and want cheap protein food , e.g. most of the world which is underfed. But in western country where you can get something better ? Unless they got it far FAR better than last time I tasted a sample a year or so... Then no way. Try a "holzfÃller steak" then try those. And tell me it is the same.
Almost every president since Reagan has deregulated multiple facets of big-business and the stock markets. Although I'm not sure about Bush Sr, nor Obama.
What does that mean? That anybody is going to be FORCED to buy lab grown meat?
As if normal meat is somehow wonderfully clean and wholesome, when it is the exact opposite. Anybody who eats meat doesn't even know WHY they are eating meat, they just blindly follow what society has told them is normal.
I think it's fairly obvious that we need to do this, and that it's price should fall far below real meat; as well as the environmental consequences. The simple likelihood is that real animal meat will become something for the wealthy.
We already eat hot dogs and whatever McDonalds puts in their burgers, how could lab grown meat be any worse?
We'll make great pets
"Would You Eat Lab-Grown Meat?"
Only if it gets billions of government subsidies, violates animals rights, ruins surface water, damages the environment and the air and is filled with hormones and antibiotics and fat giving you heart-attacks, just like the real thing.
I'm sure the lab grown meat industry will lobby until they will be allowed to label as meat products that contain... zero meat.
Just like chocolate and cocoa.
You simply cannot trust food producers.
Lab grown meat may be better to eat than regular meat. If it tastes good and the price is right i could go for it big time.
Coming to a theater near you!
...this post will be titled "Would you ever eat a real animal?"
Sure, I'd eat meat grown in a (relatively) clean laboratory. I've eaten a fried cockroach at a street market in Thailand, and I've lived in Asia long enough that I'm sure I've eaten dog and just don't know it. Lab grown meat would be no big deal.
If it is safe to eat with similar nutritional value, I would prefer it. Why would one prefer to make an animal suffer instead?
People run from GMO products. Lab meat seems like it would be less popular than that.
You used to have to take possession of a commodity before you could sell/trade in it.
That wasn't true in 1976, when I was looking into commodities. At the time I could buy a railroad car of honey with delivery in six months for 20% down (I forget the exact margin), in hopes the price would go up. If it went up 5% then I would make 25% on my investment. If it went down, I could lose my shirt.
AFAIK it was never true. The whole point of commodities trading is for companies like General Foods to have a predictable price for their raw materials well in advance of needing them, and farmers to have a predictable price for their crop before it's grown. In between are the market makers and speculators. Overall the commodities market is remarkably good at stabilizing prices for both the materials and the products made from them. Another example - airlines also buy fuel for up to five years in advance.
You can also buy and sell options - I could buy an option to buy the honey, and if the price goes down then all I lost is the price I paid for the option (i.e. I lose 100% of my investment but not more than 100%). If it goes up, I might make eight or 10 times my investment. In 1978 Hillary Clinton, at the time 'First Lady' of Arkansas, famously made out on one of these deals. One of the Clinton buddies was the head of Tyson Foods, the company that pretty much runs Arkansas. One day, HC "on a whim" opened an options account at a commodities trading firm, and a day or two later bought ten options on chicken for $12,000 (even though there was only $1,000 in her account). The trade was closed a few days later for a $6300 profit - i.e. 630% profit in a couple of days. Over the next 10 months this investment, through ongoing trades, magically turned into over $100,000. The guy who ran her trades was an executive at Tyson Foods. Source: Washington Post - note other versions of this story are much less 'soft'.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Yes I would eat lab grown meat for sure
no
Jack of all trades,master of none
Absolutely, yes, just as I would gladly participate in consuming approved GMO foods.
Unique.
I'm willing to eat the crappy mass-produced meat on the market right now. I don't see any real difference between that and lab-grown meat.
Yes, if it had similar nutritional value and pleasant flavor.
No being killed to obtain it. Hopefully less land, energy, carbon, etc.
Remember that meat you ate in the school cafeteria? It was made in the back.
"I'm using is the standard one about occupant safety and not bending panels" should read:
I'm using is the standard one about occupant safety and not a different one about bending panels
If this becomes a thing: manatee steaks, bald eagle drumsticks, tiger tail...you name it. And with bioprinting comes bioengineering, well, who wants a dragon?! So eat up, the sooner we eat em squint steaks, the sooner we walk into a bright new future....or a horrible Frankenstein disaster. Meh, better than a modern pig pen.
I vote yes, and have then nuclear sterilize the meat on the way out so I can eat it straight from the package, now that's rare.
In Capitalism, people's choice mean almost nothing. If the largest suppliers of meat-based products (processed food manufacturing, and fast food outlets) are required to adopt lab-grown meat in order to compete price-wise with others who do, animal farmed meat will become as expensive, relatively speaking, as today is "organic pasture grazing" beef is today. Lab-grown meat will not appeal to most vegans, who prefer not to consume any animal products, regardless of their source (e.g. most won't even use second hand leather, even if given for free). As per today's experimental lab-grown beef, it still requires using blood of live animals for nutrition, and this is unlikely to shift towards synthetic plant-sourced nutrients in a very long time.
I'm largely vegetarian, but when I do eat meat I like it to have the least impact on the planet as possible. Raising animals for food is incredibly intensive, and not good for the animals or the planet.
Yes of course, why not?
Mmmmm.... Slig....
Yes, that is all
Is it cheaper? Is it safe to eat? Does it have roughly the same taste and consistency? Then why the heck wouldn't I? (I expect they'll get the first two pretty easily, but I'm not totally convinced on the last one. But that's what reviews are for. I have no moral or philosophical objection to the concept, merely practical ones.)