Green | April 11, 2008 | 30 comments

Plans to grow test tube meat

source: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/invitro_meat

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jcwelker
In five to 10 years, supermarkets might have some new products in the meat counter: packs of vat-grown meat that are cheaper to produce than livestock and have less impact on the environment.

According to a new economic analysis (.pdf) presented at this week's In Vitro Meat Symposium in Ås, Norway, meat grown in giant tanks known as bioreactors would cost between $5,200-$5,500 a ton (3,300 to 3,500 euros), which the analysis claims is cost competitive with European beef prices.

With a rising global middle class projected by the UN to double meat consumption (.pdf) by 2050, and livestock already responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gases, the symposium is drawing a variety of scientists, environmentalists and food industry experts.

"We're looking to see if there are other technologies which can produce food for all the people on the planet," said Anthony Bennett of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. "Not only today but over the next 10, 20, 30 years."

Rapidly evolving technology and increasing concern about the environmental impact of meat production are signs that vat-grown meat is moving from scientific curiosity to consumer option. In vitro meat production is a specialized form of tissue engineering, a biomedical practice in which scientists try to grow animal tissues like bone, skin, kidneys and hearts. Proponents say it will ultimately be a more efficient way to make animal meat, which would reduce the carbon footprint of meat products.

"To produce the meat we eat now, 75 to 95 percent of what we feed an animal is lost because of metabolism and inedible structures like skeleton or neurological tissue," Jason Matheny, a researcher at Johns Hopkins and co-founder of New Harvest, a nonprofit that promotes research on in vitro meat, told Wired.com. "With cultured meat, there's no body to support; you're only building the meat that eventually gets eaten."
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30 comments // Plans to grow test tube meat

  • slamber
  • oneparkave
  • Peewong
    • 0
      Peewong  

    • Somehow I feel like there are some unforeseen ramifications to engineering our own meat. I mean, we're still humans and weren't designed to eat meat from an unliving creature. Are there side effects to doing this? When we start growing an extra arm or something, I guess we'll only have ourselves to blame.

    • 5 years ago
  • Mel0dy
    • 0
      Mel0dy  

    • I'm hearing these supposed environmental and social benefits, but the ewww factor would definitely prevent me from ever touching this stuff. I'd definitely go veg before eating test tube meat.

    • 5 years ago
  • Julie_Soller
    • 0
      Julie_Soller  

    • What's the point? It's not necessary to eat meat in order to be completely healthy and live a long natural life. Vegetarians not only live longer, but they smell better! Meat eating should go the way of the dinosaurs -- leave carnivoring to the obligate carnivores (like domestic cats) and humans can frolic in a paradise of veggies!

    • 5 years ago
  • achromatic
    • 0
      achromatic  

    • This seems like something from one of those distopian novels or movies. The fact that it's not natural should put up a red flag for everyone here....you know what is natural? Animals eating other animals! It is called a food chain I believe.

    • 5 years ago
  • Veritasmundi
  • CarlosIsDown
  • PatBoberg
  • usumacinta
  • Shimi
  • KeithdaSneith
    • 0
      KeithdaSneith  

    • I think this is a great advance, but who of the public would willingly eat this "meat"? It doesn't seem appealing enough for it to be a service to reducing greenhouse gases or dramatically reduce the number of animals slaughtered.

    • 5 years ago
  • ulla
  • ulla
  • Sylvie1986
  • phillyharper
  • AceHardchester
  • 1bullet
  • lwhi
    • 0
      lwhi  

    • Bladerunner was a good movie - I say go for it... also looking forward to growing my kids in a tank and uploading my brain to the house android when my body fails.

    • 5 years ago
  • 1bullet
    • 0
      1bullet  

    • Haha, and to think, I hated eating meat before. This just sounds so much more appetizing!! Ugh. The idea of helping the environment is really cool, but meat is meat, and its still gonna screw up your insides. No thanks.

    • 5 years ago
  • phillyharper
    • 0
      phillyharper  

    • This is just too weird for me. It's so un-human, and so...hmmm.

      It's just a step too far, it reminds me a bit of bladerunner or something.

      just. not. cricket.

    • 5 years ago
  • BigME413
    • 0
      BigME413  

    • So would this be a vegetarian-friendly kind of meat? I wonder what it will be called, because "vat meat" does not sound very appetizing? What about "cow-free beef" or "pigless pork?" Monstermeat? Cloneburger?

    • 5 years ago
  • Merge9
    • 0
      Merge9  

    • "inedible structures like skeleton or neurological tissue"

      Lost - hardly!!! Some high pressure sqeezing of that through a fine mincer and a bit of dye will finds it's way into many processed dishes and hotdogs!

      Seriously, if meat can be grown this way and it tastes good that is brilliant! The cruilty in this intensive industry that we shut our eyes to so we can have our cheap piece of meat is a deep shame for us all.

      If you have the stomach for it, a beautiful documentary on mans dominance and cruilty to animals across the full sprectrum is Earthlings:

      Can be seen here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967

    • 5 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • Evan, it is not just the fats that are deleterious to health, it is the very nature of meat itself which is unhealthy and causes cancer of the colon, among other nasties. Meat remains adhere to the colon and build up for years while they rot, making the absorption of vital nutrients more difficult and sometimes blocking it altogether.

    • 5 years ago
  • Evan_australian
    • 0
      Evan_australian  

    • This is awesome, massive ethical and ecological benefits. As for health, they may be able to drop the dangerous fats, add vitamin supplements like they do with salt and bread.

      It just sounds so gross. And a bit "Soylent green". But if you saw hotdogs being made....

    • 5 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • mischabarrett, it all depends on the reasons why one is a vegetarian. If it is for health reasons, test-tube-grown meat is just as harmful to the health as meat from slaughtered animals.

    • 5 years ago
  • mischabarrett
  • ILiveonaClock
  • taniaelle
  • NotCaleb
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