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?

Comments

YES!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

How does it taste?

[CrimsonAvenger]

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?")....

Re:Why not?

[houstonbofh]

If it's cheap and healthy and tastes good.. Why not?

Trust. You can verify the cheap. You can verify the tastes good. The healthy? You gotta trust the same guys that pushed through the GMO whitewash labeling bills.

The grain alcohol didn't really raise food prices

[rsilvergun]

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.