Scientists Create Artificial Meat 820
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that scientists have created the first artificial meat by extracting cells from the muscle of a live pig and putting them in a broth of other animal products where the cells then multiplied to create muscle tissue. Described as soggy pork, researchers believe that it can be turned into something like steak if they can find a way to 'exercise' the muscle and while no one has yet tasted the artificial meat, researchers believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years' time. '"What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there," says Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University. "You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals." Animal rights group Peta has welcomed the laboratory-grown meat, announcing that "as far as we're concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there's no ethical objection while the Vegetarian Society remained skeptical. "The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered. It would be very difficult to label and identify in a way that people would trust.""
Re:Slig! (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants [wikipedia.org]
Tasteless (Score:5, Informative)
As a foodie, all I have to say is that a large part of the taste of a good steak comes from the FAT content of the meat, and that _pure_ 'cultivated' muscle tissue would make for a terrible steak, and an even worse hamburger.
Until they manage to grow a well-marbled piece of meat, they won't be any better than a tofu burger.
Re:I am scared. I am intrigued. (Score:2, Informative)
Better Off Ted: Test Tub Meat (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Artificial vs. Real Meat (Score:3, Informative)
Looking forward to sampling artificial meat jerky and Slim Jims
There hasn't been real meat in Slim Jims since before Randy Savage was their spokesman. ;)
Re:I am scared. I am intrigued. (Score:5, Informative)
...but the NY cut or Filet mignon aged beef marinated over 24 hours cooked by a professional with the right blend of herbs spices...
As a classically trained chef I can tell you that marinating filet mignon for 24 hours is a terribly bad idea. With such a small amount of connective tissue and fat it would be mushy and over seasoned. Although I do agree with the rest of your post. :)
Re:Cheers for PETA (Score:3, Informative)
Their statement, as you quoted it, is perfectly rational. They didn't reference the animal-product broth, and I imagine that such a broth won't be needed when this process is perfected; in fact, it'll probably be self-sustaining, sort of like sourdough bread is made from a piece of the previous batch of sourdough, used as a "seed".
Re:Artificial vs. Real Meat (Score:3, Informative)
Douglas Adams beat you to it (Score:3, Informative)
Produce tracking. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Law of thermodynamics violation? (Score:1, Informative)
How about massive reduction in methane, massive reduction in water usage, no steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones in the pseudo-meat? Beef farming is one of the worst industries for the environment on the planet. Anything that cuts down on beef farming is likely to be a pretty good step in the right direction for us all.
But like all "breakthroughs", this doesn't exist, it'll be "10 years away" from production and won't make it passed the huge farming lobbying groups around the world. Not that there's anything stopping the carrot munchers from swapping industries themselves.
Re:Law of thermodynamics violation? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not if we create chicken killing meat-bots (Score:5, Informative)
Any type of living tissue is ALWAYS using more free energy than it will produce.
It requires energy input to do any of its processes (pushing against chemical gradients, synthesizing complex organic molecules, etc). The net value of energy that you could collect through any type of muscle contraction is always less than the amount of energy you had to put in to cause that muscle to flex. Actin and myosin fibers sliding over each other require ATP to change their conformations properly, and ATP is created through biochemical metabolic pathways that are not 100% efficient. You always lose energy to heat. That's why you need to eat everyday.
It's the very essence of entropy.
Re:Not so fast... (Score:3, Informative)
PETA has a $1 million prize for whoever brings it to market first. Isn't that saying enough?
http://www.peta.org/feat_in_vitro_contest.asp [peta.org]
Re:Where do you get your figures? (Score:3, Informative)
I can point to PETA's web site ...
'Nuff said. If you're going to cite PETA (of all things) as a source then the GP doesn't have to bother refuting you: your podal extremity is already bleeding profusely. I mean, that would be like quoting the MPAA when discussing the benefits of the bit torrent protocol.
Not normal farm animal (Score:1, Informative)
Normal farm animal here around don't need much energy : they are left around to pasture which would ANYWAY not be used (or are not even usable) as grain or legumes field. So the energy at most expanded is negligible, at least until the point where they are transported to the slaughter house or the meat slabs from the slaughterhouse to the factory or the shop. It is only the big factory farm which use either animal meal (dead animals put into meals to feed more protein) or grains. Small farmer do not.