I read an interesting article today about a Dutch lab that's succeeded in growing strips of pork from stem cells.
There was a similar story about cultured meat (it was beef) a few years ago. The comment section for that article was dominated by people who were thoroughly disgusted by the idea. Not me. What's disgusting is killing an animal and eating it.
Don't get me wrong—I am an avid meat eater. I even eat organ meats and feet and blood sausage and headcheese and stuff. But there's no getting around the fact that meat has a high gross-out factor. Add to this the fact that factory farms and feedlots are arguably inhumane, and certainly disastrous for the environment, and you have a pretty good argument for going veg.
I, for one, would be delighted to do away with these ethical issues and eat hot dogs, burgers, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks that came from a lab.
Finer cuts of meat are another story. It's well known that an animal's diet and lifestyle have a significant effect upon the flavor and texture of its flesh. Not to mention milk. And eggs. And honey. Et cetera.
But I have faith in science. If scientists can figure out how to grow meat in a petri dish, surely they can eventually figure out ways to tinker with its more ethereal qualities. Presumably it's just an extremely complicated transfer of molecules that happens when an animal eats something and converts it to flesh and bone.
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1 comment:
OK, so wait a sec. So let's say this is the future.. lets say you can have a big metal basin in your fridge and you can cut off a piece of meat and microwave it and it'll taste like bacon. Then let's say you have to put a bunch of toxic chemicals and enzymes, soy byproducts, algae and Drano into the basin. Then the meat slab thing grows more meat to make up for the meat that you cut off.
But.. but.. it tastes like bacon.
Sign me the fuck up. The future looks pretty good to me.
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