In vitro meat becomes a step closer

**Photolysis** · 08-05-2013 03:07 PM

BBC News - World's first lab-grown burger is eaten in London

Interesting stuff. If the meat produced ever reaches a quality where it's as good as the real thing and the costs can be made viable, I'd definitely eat it.

I can tolerate the ethics behind meat-eating myself, but if there's a way of eliminating the problem altogether then I'd be all for it.

I think the real question is if the technology can be improved such that actual meat can be produced, rather than a bunch of muscle cells. This applies to any tissue really, which has a far more complicated structure, and would be especially important to solve for medicinal applications of growing cells.

**juroara** · 08-05-2013 03:34 PM

Clearly a science likes this takes a lot of intelligence. But thinking this is a way to solve a meat-eating dilemma is simply a backwards logic. We don't need cloned meat of any kind to solve any kind of food problem. People should eat less meat.

This is better suited for the medical industry, not food.

**Xei** · 08-05-2013 04:15 PM

Most people love the taste of meat and people need to consume protein. Why do you feel able to speak for the tastes of your fellow 7 billion humans? And don't make out that liking meat is backwards, humans have survived off it for hundreds of thousands of years and have evolved to like it.

**Sivason** · 08-05-2013 09:59 PM

Thanks for sharing that. I would eat it. The problem I see are that you would need to produce cow fat cells to blend with the meat, but ideally perhaps canola or sesame oils could be used. If such oils could be substituted for the needed fat content, then it would be a be increase in healthiness.

As far as saying people need to eat less meat, I am not sure it would apply in this case. Arguments against meat include cruelty (removed in this setting), antibiotics, hormones, and saturated fat. This meat would be virtually free of saturated fat, and I do not think they would be using antibiotics or hormones.

One application that sounds plausible would be to provide meat in space travel.

**Xei** · 08-06-2013 01:07 AM

It may require many antibiotics, in lieu of an immune system, which could be a bad idea. I imagine it also uses hormones, though I don't know what the negative effects of that would be.