Meatball From Long-Extinct Mammoth Created By Food Firm (theguardian.com) 72
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: A mammoth meatball has been created by a cultivated meat company, resurrecting the flesh of the long-extinct animals. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of meat grown from cells, without the slaughter of animals, and to highlight the link between large-scale livestock production and the destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis.
The mammoth meatball was produced by Vow, an Australian company, which is taking a different approach to cultured meat. There are scores of companies working on replacements for conventional meat, such as chicken, pork and beef. But Vow is aiming to mix and match cells from unconventional species to create new kinds of meat. The company has already investigated the potential of more than 50 species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks and different types of fish. The first cultivated meat to be sold to diners will be Japanese quail, which the company expects will be in restaurants in Singapore this year. [...]
Vow worked with Prof Ernst Wolvetang, at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, to create the mammoth muscle protein. His team took the DNA sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a key muscle protein in giving meat its flavor, and filled in the few gaps using elephant DNA. This sequence was placed in myoblast stem cells from a sheep, which replicated to grow to the 20 billion cells subsequently used by the company to grow the mammoth meat. "It was ridiculously easy and fast," said Wolvetang. "We did this in a couple of weeks." Initially, the idea was to produce dodo meat, he said, but the DNA sequences needed do not exist. Tim Noakesmith, cofounder of Vow, said: "We chose the woolly mammoth because it's a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change." Bas Korsten at creative agency Wunderman Thompson added: "Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it."
No one has yet to taste the mammoth meatball, notes the report. "We haven't seen this protein for thousands of years," said Wolvetang. "So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies."
The mammoth meatball was produced by Vow, an Australian company, which is taking a different approach to cultured meat. There are scores of companies working on replacements for conventional meat, such as chicken, pork and beef. But Vow is aiming to mix and match cells from unconventional species to create new kinds of meat. The company has already investigated the potential of more than 50 species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks and different types of fish. The first cultivated meat to be sold to diners will be Japanese quail, which the company expects will be in restaurants in Singapore this year. [...]
Vow worked with Prof Ernst Wolvetang, at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, to create the mammoth muscle protein. His team took the DNA sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a key muscle protein in giving meat its flavor, and filled in the few gaps using elephant DNA. This sequence was placed in myoblast stem cells from a sheep, which replicated to grow to the 20 billion cells subsequently used by the company to grow the mammoth meat. "It was ridiculously easy and fast," said Wolvetang. "We did this in a couple of weeks." Initially, the idea was to produce dodo meat, he said, but the DNA sequences needed do not exist. Tim Noakesmith, cofounder of Vow, said: "We chose the woolly mammoth because it's a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change." Bas Korsten at creative agency Wunderman Thompson added: "Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it."
No one has yet to taste the mammoth meatball, notes the report. "We haven't seen this protein for thousands of years," said Wolvetang. "So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies."
Next up... (Score:1)
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I remember one "defrosted frozen guy experiences severe future shock" SF story where one of the things the protagonist was hit with was exactly that (not a plot point, it was just an ad for it in the background). Can't remember what the exact title was, though.
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Was there a blowjob scene in Encino Man?
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I remember one "defrosted frozen guy experiences severe future shock" SF story where one of the things the protagonist was hit with was exactly that (not a plot point, it was just an ad for it in the background). Can't remember what the exact title was, though.
Not the exact scene but Sly has the right attitude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
No one has yet to taste the mammoth meatball, notes the report.
So somebody didn't not taste it, or nobody didn't taste it? Which is it?
I for one can't wait for these new burgers/nuggets. I'll be queuing up when they arrive.
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I"m trying to go for less and less heavily pre-processed foods....I like to buy raw ingredients and cook for myself.
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I just plain prefer the real dead animal meat sources.
How do you know? Have you tried these?
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I don't have to try them to know they are artificial, man-made and heavily processed.
"Lab Grown" pretty much is the definition of all that.
I'll stick with my protein sources from nature....you're welcome to have what you want, just make sure and label is so that there is no confusion as to the source of the protein in question please.
Thank you...
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Hahaha, thank you. I was pretty bewildered by their post as well.
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You are aware that farmers don't butcher their own animals, yes?
And you are aware that meat processing plants are all over the place, yes?
Wow, terrorists going to start attacking meat packing plants!! This is the dumbest fucking argument I've seen in a long time.
Your lack of ability to think outside of the box has me troubled. No domestic terrorist had thought to attack a power station, and yet they did.
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You are aware that farmers don't butcher their own animals, yes?
And you are aware that meat processing plants are all over the place, yes?
First of all, why do you think these plants would not be all over the place? Some law I don't know about saying they need to be all in one place? Also, the 25 or so largest meat packing plants supply the majority of the meat products in the US. The industry is consolidated into a few players with very large facilities. So not as decentralized as you seem to think
Wow, terrorists going to start attacking meat packing plants!! This is the dumbest fucking argument I've seen in a long time.
Your lack of ability to think outside of the box has me troubled. No domestic terrorist had thought to attack a power station, and yet they did.
You lack of ability to think logically has me troubled.
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Oh no, terrorists took out our nation's meat supply!
Now everyone will be slightly healthier.... crap!
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I don't get what makes you think it would be few and centralized. If anything farming is like that where everything gets taken to a distribution center.
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I have an idea: lets put all of our meat production in a few centralized factories so they're easy targets in the event of war or terrorist activities!
Not to mention the temptation for governments here, with the itch to mandate that people eat this crap, while making real livestock illegal in the name of "climate crisis".
And I'll bet real money that the same people bitching about Taco Bell not being "real beef" ("It's not beef! It's Pink Slime!"), are many of the same people enthusiastic about these petri food schemes.
Re:Lets think this out (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no need to be so reductive and absolutist about this, both cultured meat and real livestock can and ultimately will exist next to eachother for a long time to come.
Also these companies are not doing this because "governments" they are responding to market demands or what they feel is future market demands because people are growing a bit more wary of meat (especially the mass production practices) than they have been in the past as well as the climate and other issues surrounding meat production today. You can maybe disagree of the severtiy of those things but you can't just handwave them away, especially without evidence. There are definite downsides to mass factory farming of all animals, environmental, economic, ethical and healthwise as well.
None of this means "the end of livestock" and in fact it's funny you bring up pink slime (which is chicken btw) becauase that is the type of thing I think cultured meat will have the absolute biggest impact in displacing; the highly processed and commoditized meat products that can pretty much already be replaced with alternatives and are sold for the cheapest cost and thus lead to the worst type of conditions for the farms.
Cultured meats can replace 50% of the current meant market and you will be still be able to buy a good steak, a bucket of real fried chicken and a rack of ribs. If the McRib pressed pork patty is replaced with a cultured meat patty that tastes exactly the same, who cares if it's better for people and the animals? Not everything has to fall on political lines.
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Peoples attitudes have absolutely changed even by your own metric of veganism which is growing by a decent percentage year over year. People are also absolutely aware about the conditions animals are raised under even if they still eat meat.
The kosher example is really not an answer because kosher only pertained to a small population really and accounted for a small percentage of animal practices for a very long time. Even today i can find 5 non-kosher to kosher items (and there is no such thing as Kosher
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Peoples attitudes have absolutely changed even by your own metric of veganism which is growing by a decent percentage year over year.
A few years ago, some people in Berlin said, "Wow, there's 80,000 people in Berlin who are Vegetarian!" Given the population of the Berlin metropolitan area, at the time, it was almost nobody. Right now it's a fad. Even vegetarians and vegans generally only spend a few years practicing it before they go back to eating normal. Go look it up yourself if you're interested.
It's kinda fresh you accuse me of projection when your opinions on this from my end appear heavily influenced by your politics; your only stated reason to oppose this is conspiratorial in nature (governments going to take away real meat!).
Nobody who isn't a vegetarian/vegan considers this to be a political issue.
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Absolutely some people do revert back but more and more are taking it up and even those who go back to eating meat probably still have their diets adapted and don't consume in the same way before going vegan even if not strictly vegan. An increasing trend is still an increasing trend
https://www.globenewswire.com/... [globenewswire.com]
"The global vegan food market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.2% from 2022 to 2028; it is estimated to grow from USD 17 billion in 2022 to USD 31 billion by 2028."
https://www.theguardia [theguardian.com]
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Pokeman was a trend. Mojitos were a trend. Gluten Free is a trend. There are all kinds of trends. They tend disappear after a few years. Psychedelic mushrooms were huge in the 70s and 90s. Coke was huge in the 80s. Things like this come and go.
And no, it was the vegan/vegetarian movement that keeps trying to inject this as a political movement (see that projection thing). If they hadn't said anything, nobody would have brought it up. If you really believe it was meat eaters who made this political, why did
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Vegetarianism/veganism has been around for centuries but even really in modern society for decades and skepticism about the meat industry practices has been around really since Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle" in 1906.
If they hadn't said anything, nobody would have brought it up.
What does this even mean? They should keep their dietary preference an absolute secret? For who and why?
If they hadn't said anything, nobody would have brought it up.
That is not at all what i said or meant, makes an easier argument to fight against though doesn't it. I said you were injecting politics into this.
Where did the idea of creating a meat substitute even come from
People who wanted an alternative to meat.
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Vegetarianism has been around for millennia, but large groups of vegans only date to about 1800. Nobody before then really tried to avoid all animal products, only selectively. There are also zero indigenous vegans. (There may have been some, but they were probably eaten.)
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Pokeman was a trend. Mojitos were a trend. Gluten Free is a trend. There are all kinds of trends. They tend disappear after a few years. Psychedelic mushrooms were huge in the 70s and 90s. Coke was huge in the 80s. Things like this come and go.
Your examples of trends (I think you meant fads) are bonkers. Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise in history worldwide and still holds that title in 2023. Mojitos have been around for hundreds of years and remain popular to this day. Mushrooms are still out there, being consumed; now they are being keenly studied for medical potential.
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Nobody who eats chickens ever wanted it.
Many people who eat meat are critical of industrial livestock production and unimaginable levels of cruelty and suffering resulting from it. What are you even on about?
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Obligatory car analogy: EVs are coming, so we need to immediately ban ICE vehicles completely. No, you can't have a V12 Lamborghini (made in the thousands) because the 20 million ICE cars made every year are destroying the world! Well, except for all the farming equipment and other things which are all exempt from the law because reasons... LOL.
Never underestimate the power of politics and emotional manipulation.
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Re: Lets think this out (Score:2)
while just buy the fresh cells you want to reproduce
And the growth medium. Which will turn out to be some petrochemical based sludge.
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Who is banned distributed factories? Farms are susceptible to disease/viruses wiping out entire regions.
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I have an idea: lets put all of our meat production in a few centralized factories so they're easy targets in the event of war.
Spot the paranoid prepper...
TLDR; We consume far too much meat for that to ever happen. Today's meat producers will be setting up big fermentation vats in their rain forest clearings.
Wilma! (Score:2)
What's for dinner?
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"shout-out to tony meatballs and big minty"
(classic)
at long last (Score:5, Funny)
now we just need to make sure to keep listeria from getting into the grow-vats. details, details.
I don't think this means what you think it means (Score:2)
Frankenfood (Score:2)
Try Celebrity Branding (Score:3)
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Just eat pork; tastes the same.
Re: Try Celebrity Branding (Score:2)
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symbol of climate change (Score:1)
Re: symbol of climate change (Score:4, Funny)
Neanderthals with SUVs.
Not a dietician (Score:1)
...but I'd guess that human digestive systems are /truly/ devolved into one of those new Homo Milquetoastus that are allergic to everything)
a) generally extraordinarily resilient and adaptable (unless you've
b) on the whole actually evolving much more slowly than on a scale of 'thousands of years' anyway.
Mad Mammoth (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Mad Mammoth (Score:4, Informative)
I like this post. (Score:1)
That is a good poster.
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How do they know they are not mass producing prions
not a problem; if you make enough anti-neutrinos that will eliminate all free prions.
(wait, wut?)
Paranoia's food cats were a joke (Score:3)
Or at least supposed to be a joke.
I'm unsure on this one now that they're becoming real. Meat will taste and feel different depending on how the animal was raised, what it ate, its age, etc, as well as have different nutritional content/value.
How does all that work out in these new technologies? They're always unclear in articles on this stuff.
Re:Paranoia's food vats were a joke (Score:2)
Food vats, sorry, should have proofed that although food cats is an interesting option.
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I feel like those features are naturally at the higher end of the meat spectrum with whole cuts and varied textures.
It seems like cultured meat with naturally displace the lowest end first because that is where things are more factory procudes and thus quality is in fact very consistent; My nugget or fast food burger is pretty much the same across the nation because those things are centrallyproduced and pretty much homogenized.
As this tech matures over the decades I can also see places being able to focus
A real life XKCD? (Score:2)
Ressurect cells from an extinct animal and instead of using them for proper science - lets make meatballs!
If this were posted in 3 days time no one would believe it.
Do we really want to promote eating extinct animal (Score:2)
Serious question, do we really want to promote eating extinct animals?
I mean, there's also an attempt to revive mammoths, so if we're already eating them would we immediately turn to herding and raising mammoths for food?
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Why not? It's not like we'll drive the Dodo to extinction if we start eating vat-grown Dodo meat.
About the only ethical consideration I can see is if vat grown meat must take more resources than conventional meat. I don't see that being the case, there's almost certainly more overhead in raising a cow for beef than growing it in the lab.
It's delicious (Score:4, Funny)
That's why there are no mammoths left.
Re: It's delicious (Score:2)
Reminds me of an old Far Side comic. A cave family is sitting around a campfire, gnawing on the meat on some bones.
Cave kid asks his mom: "So what is this stuff anyway?"
Mom replies: "It's called 'Link'. Enjoy it. It's the last one."
Re:It's delicious (true with giant tortises!) (Score:2)
That's why there are no mammoths left.
Here is a hilarious excerpt [youtube.com] from QI when they discussed why it took 300 years to give the giant tortoise a scientific name (spoiler: they were delicious)
Mammoth meat? (Score:1)
Is It Nutritious? (Score:2)
Could have been worse... (Score:2)
Could have been.... a bagel!
Find out what happens when you put everything on a bagel...
Re:Could have been worse... (Score:4, Funny)
Mammoth Meatball? (Score:2, Funny)
Won't taste the same (Score:1)
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future fast food (Score:2)
I tried the Domino's Elephanteroni, Slow Loris, and Mutated Rat Sausage meat combo pizza. Better than expected. However now there's something weird growing out of my jawline. Is there supposed to be a clawed foot under my ear?
Cultured Meat (Score:2)