The end of VEGETARIANISM is coming

[delta9]

Or should be, anyway.
BBC Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4148164.stm)

An international research team has proposed new techniques that may lead to the mass production of meat reared not on the farm, but in the laboratory.

Developments in tissue engineering mean that cells taken from animals could be grown directly into meat in a laboratory, the researchers say.

Scientists believe the technology already exists to directly grow processed meat like a chicken nugget.

The technology could benefit both humans and the environment.

"With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply. And you could do it in a way that's better for the environment and human health.

"In the long term, this is a very feasible idea," said Jason Matheny of the University of Maryland, part of the team whose research has been published in the Tissue Engineering journal.

Growing the meat without the animal could reduce the need to keep millions of animals in cramped conditions and would lessen the damage caused by the meat production to the environment.

Laboratory-grown meat could also be healthier, proponents say.

Eating 'mush'

Tissue engineering techniques were first developed for medical use and small amounts of edible fish tissue have been grown in research conducted by Nasa.

Japanese Black beef bull and four clones (Yang/PNAS)
Concerns have been raised about eating meat from cloned animals.
To industrialise the process, researchers suggest the cells could be grown on large sheets that would need to be stretched to provide the 'exercise' for the growing muscles.

"If you didn't stretch them, it would be like eating mush," said Mr Methany.

Whilst the technology to produce processed meat is here now, producing a steak or chicken breast is still quite a way off, the researchers say.

Questions

The new techniques could also provide a dilemma for vegetarians.

Some may feel able to eat meat that has been grown without an animal being harmed.

Others feel that question marks remain about the way the cells would be taken from animals.

"It won't appeal to someone who gave up meat because they think it's morally wrong to eat flesh or someone who doesn't want to eat anything unnatural," Kerry Bennett of the UK Vegetarian Society told the Guardian newspaper.

How regulators might react is also unclear.

The US Food and Drug Administration has asked companies not to market any products that involve cloned animals until their safety has been evaluated.

I love the pictures! Mmmm, meat!
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40686000/jpg/_40686064_appork203.jpg
We could have lab grade pork cuts someday, baby!

And I love the caption to the other one...

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41024000/jpg/_41024145_clones_yangpnas_203.jpg
Concerns have been raised about eating meat from cloned animals.

[treehugger]

All I can say is:


eeeeeewwwwww!

[delta9]

Yeah, *real* natural meat is soooooooooo good.

[treehugger]

LOL...you got me there. Although I don't want to think very closely about eating *real* meat either otherwise it'd also warrant an *eeeewwww response from me.....

Nope, I prefer me the hypocritical way...as long as my meat is clean and dead when I get it I dont' want to think about how it got there... ;)

Although I am leaning more towards vegetarianism...or at least *humane meat eating.

Kath

[delta9]

Wouldn't lab grown meat be the most humane?

[treehugger]

Well, I suppose it would, if I could get past the "ick" factor...

Although there's a part of me that wonders if we need meat so much that we're insistent on creating artificial forms of it...

aaaack..

don't give me these quandaries when I'm trying to go organic and eat as naturally as I can, LOL

It's an interesting thought, it is. Methinks, though that the potential for corruption is high, indeed.

Can't say how I feel about it; I don't know, myself.

Kath

[hempcrow]

Wouldn't lab grown meat be the most humane?

no.... there would be an unwanted boost in real livestock which would be normally used for the purposes of beef and other meats and animal products... with this new developement, there will be a boom in cow production and population, ultimately causing a shortage in grains that humans would use for bread.. ( i know cows eat grass, but what happens when we no longer have healthy grass for them to eat?) i say that playing god is not safe for anyone... i ask that noone support this fatal developement. actually if yall want it... go for it. but dont cry to us real meat eaters when all the cow flatulance causes the ice caps to melt indirectly through global warming..... aside from this,, beef farmers will lose jobs....... THESE THINGS ARE NOT GOOD FOR US OR OUR ECONOMY!!! i think that this is just another government funded way for us to become more of a part of the grid.... i wouldn't want to trust what my children might eat ( if& when i do have children) to the government because the man likes to exterminate his enemies...( the man meaning the gov't) i'm telling you this can lead to anything but good results...

[Herbmama]

It won't be the end of this veggie...cause I for sure ain't eating that.

[delta9]

Hempcrow, you don't know ANYTHING about economics or the meat industry, do you?

[CowboyHippy]

I gotta disagree with you a bit hempcrow, a lot of what you said is feasable
but some of it is a little out there

i dont click links, and i cant justify upgrading my dialup due to my limited use on the net....and it's late, im tired, so my apoligies for spelling and grammar on this one

mind you it is speculation and best guessing. lemme rub the crystal ball

i think if somethign like this were to happen, it would not be an abrupt surplus of livestock, many people would be dead set against eating lab meat(for the purposes of my .02 i'll refer to it as soylent green), but i'm sure given time more people would jump on the soylent bandwagon and before long i think there would be a an economically healthy assortment of natural and soylent on the market. I'm sure there would be some sort ofanti soylent movement, and it would be a big issue in the news, like stem cells

Initially the labs would set out on a major advertising campaign, the price of which would have to be recouped on the costs of the product, so say for the first 3-5 years it'll be three times as much as regular meat. being sold as more humane, disease and defect free and healthier... then till all the patents and licensing are up it'll be double that of meat, allowing meat to develop a healthy stock, not nearly a surplus, but driving the real meat prices down enough to make it a thriftier choice for consumers.

they day will come when they would be priced fairly similar, and as you said the supply would surplus the demand, and the profitibility of raising cattle would go down. by this time all the labs could operate in the mittle of an urban environment, no needs for fields or grain, storage barns, waste removal...

the price of dairy products would hopefully remain about the same, unless they figure a way to grow tasty soylent milk. It would be a feasible option for beef cattle farmers to switch to dairy cows.

I think the real problem with this, as with many other good natured ideas..
there would be so much testing and certification and behind the scenes work that it would cost money
I doubt they are doing this so they can grow mountains of meat to distribute to the poor and needy. someone somewhere wants to make a buck.

Nikola tesla was one of the greatest minds of our time, radio, wireless communication, power transmission, radio control, alternating current, plus countless other inventions. He wanted to better the world with his ideas, and did what he thought was best to make them available to the public instead he died penniless, and westinghouse died rich, and everyone thinks edison put electricity into everyones homes.

[Unkle_John]

I think that the growth hormones they give cattle, poltry and fish are the reason children are physically developing so early. Good genetics is another reason, but the rate of children developing so fast outweighs the "good genetics" theory. Just my $.02

It was also theorized that Nikola Tesla was the one that caused the mysterious explosion in Siberia. He was sending energy to a tower in England and miscalculated the magnetic pull of the North Pole. It threw the pattern off an caused it to hit the remote region of Siberia, causing the explosion the leveled 500,000 acres.

[morningsunshine]

Or should be, anyway.
BBC Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4148164.stm)

ugh, gross!
I'd rather eat meat from a free-range chicken or steer than that crap.

[morningsunshine]

no.... there would be an unwanted boost in real livestock which would be normally used for the purposes of beef and other meats and animal products... with this new developement, there will be a boom in cow production and population, ultimately causing a shortage in grains that humans would use for bread.. ( i know cows eat grass, but what happens when we no longer have healthy grass for them to eat?) i say that playing god is not safe for anyone... i ask that noone support this fatal developement. actually if yall want it... go for it. but dont cry to us real meat eaters when all the cow flatulance causes the ice caps to melt indirectly through global warming..... aside from this,, beef farmers will lose jobs....... THESE THINGS ARE NOT GOOD FOR US OR OUR ECONOMY!!! i think that this is just another government funded way for us to become more of a part of the grid.... i wouldn't want to trust what my children might eat ( if& when i do have children) to the government because the man likes to exterminate his enemies...( the man meaning the gov't) i'm telling you this can lead to anything but good results...
Yes, exactly. I'm sure that the cows would just run wild, breaking into our grain supply and causing a new worldwide famine, responsible for thousands, perhaps millions of deaths. Not only this, but the flatulence from all those cows eating our grain would cause the temperature to skyrocket. Someone get those rampaging cows some Bean-O.
While I agree with you that eating synthetically produced food is bad for us, I don't think it's bad for us in the reasons you think they are... which I'm not quite sure what they were...
And I didn't understand a word of the rest of your post, what were you trying to say about the government? It wants to destroy its enemies... such as the beef industry? Or the children? o_O
I don't think I'd feel comfortable eating lab-produced meat, nor would I feel comfortable growing a baby in a test tube or cloning my pet once it got really old (did you hear about that? Clone your cat for $50,000!!), all for the same reason, which is that I don't agree with playing Mother Nature. While it may not have any extremely adverse effects, it just gives me the willies.




I think that the growth hormones they give cattle, poltry and fish are the reason children are physically developing so early. Good genetics is another reason, but the rate of children developing so fast outweighs the "good genetics" theory. Just my $.02

I was actually reading in a parenting magazine to only feed your baby organic fruits and meats, because the growth hormones normally found in them has been linked to early breast development in girls (think 8 years old)!

[room85]

EW,EW,EW!, I don't eat meat at all. Not because it hurts animals or because it's a good diet. I don't eat it because I don't like it. I will never eat it no matter how good it is. I just don't like it and will never like it. I just find it disgusting. ewwwwww, fucking meat!

[toman]

^^^ awesome.