Soylent Hamburgers Are Made from Test Tubes

| 12/3/2009 1:53:12 PM

Tags: Science and Technology, Environment, meat, In-Vitro meat, h plus,

Test TubesAfter years of media coverage, including an article in Utne Reader, scientists have finally grown meat in a laboratory. Animal rights advocates are cautiously optimistic, because the proposed food source wouldn’t involve killing animals. According to the British Times, the concoction currently resembles “a soggy form of pork," and the scientists are working to improve the texture. The taste, however, remains in question, since rules currently bar scientists from tasting the In-Vitro meat.

Leaving the scientific and ethical questions behind, Hank Hyena, writing for h+ magazine, envisions a world where In-Vitro meat is already wildly popular. According to Hyena, “In-Vitro Meat will be socially transformative, like automobiles, cinema, vaccines.” Ranches will disappear, urbanization will accelerate, and the price of rural land will plummet. Economies that rely heavily on animal meat for trade, like Argentina and New Zealand, will have to figure out a new source of income or risk collapse. The world will get healthier and more environmentally friendly, according to Hyena, but the meat itself will be a lot more strange.

Source: h+ 

Rina Deych_3
12/12/2009 5:04:18 PM

The process involves painlessly taking a few cells from a live animal and putting them in a nutritious medium in which they will divide. The concept was initially introduced by Dutch physician Willem van Eelen. Using this technology, a pure product minus hormones, steroids, antibiotics, and pesticide residues would be created. In addition, since it would be produced in a completely controlled environment, it would be free of Mad Cow, Avian Flu, Salmonella, E-Coli, the newly revived Swine Flu, and other flesh-borne diseases. Theoretically, a few cells can feed an entire nation. this technology could potentially have a profound impact on tens of billions of animals' lives annually, and produce a healthier (or less unhealthy, depending on how you look at it) product for human consumption. The insult to the environment would be minimal compared with that caused by the huge amounts of waste and pollution generated by agribusiness. There is even a buzz in the meat industry about how, after an initial investment, this technology could rapidly become cost-effective, with no maintenance of live animals (including feed and veterinary care), no medications, and no waste management problems. Rina Deych, RN (Vegan Nurse)