Meat from a test tube?

[Rob Babcock]

Check this out- scientists have learned how to artificially grow animal tissues/meat without the whole animal! Taken to the ultimate extreme, the technique could be used to grow steaks, burgers and chicken nuggets with specifically tailored nutritional profiles. Want your burger low in cholesterol and high in Omega-3's? Perhaps it will be done thru the magic of science!

On a serious note, if this could be done on a large scale, the amount of resources we could save might be significant. And your vegan types would have no legitimate moral grounds for opposing meat, as nothing would be killed to produce it- the tissue would simply be grown in sheets.

Just so long as they don't make Soylent Green flavor!

 

[Barbara L]

Very weird!

Barbara

 

[Maidrite]

AND HIGH IN CANCER AND MAD COW I BET !

 

[Barbara L]

I would assume Mad Cow Disease would not be a worry with this. But it is still very weird!!

Barbara

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Give me the meat!!! Im allllllllll over it!

 

[tweedee]

I think I'll start eating more peanut butter.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

This is an old thread, but I've just seen it for the first time. I suspect that the meat is simply nourished in a nutrient rich broth, and was started from a live culture. In that case, the meat would be identicle with the original tissue, be it beef, pork, or monkey for that matter. It would contain the same characteristics as the donor animal as each cell reproduces according to the genetic information contained in the individual cells. The downside is that most cells have a limited life cycle, that is, each time it reproduces, a piece of the DNA structure is lost. The piece lost is designed to limit the number of reproductions. When all of these "tags" are gone, the cell can no longer reproduce another cell.

Only two types of cells don't suffer this built in time regulator; the male sperm cells, and cancerous cells. One is benign and the other dangerous. I'll leave it up to you to determine which is which, remembering that there has to be in nature a method for all mortals to die in the natural scheme of things. But then, that's another argument or discussion.

If the muscle tissue has merely had the "tags" disabled so that the muscle can reproduce endlessly, then I see no danger. In fact, this could be the method required to promote deep space travel and such. Then again, how hard is it to reproduce the nutrient rich fluid required to maintain health and vitality in the tissue? And how is the metabolized wast flushed from the tissue?

Remember, all knowledge can be used for good or evil, and that means all knowledge. If you think of any thing at all, you will find both sides of that thing. So, it's up to those creating the tissue, and the customers who want it, to determine its use for good or bad.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[middie]

i'm tired of food being altered.

 

[DampCharcoal]

I can kinda understand crops being altered to resist insects and disease and what not but lab grown meat? No thanks. "I'll have a cloneburger, please." YUCK!