Genuine Artificial Real Meat!

So check it, max hubris points out this article on some dutch researchers trying to grow meat in a lab. You know, meat for eating. So far they’ve not grown anything very meatlike, but it’s something they’re pursuing and could turn into reality at some point in the future. The notion is that lots of nations developed and developing are eating increasing amounts of meat and raising livestock for that purpose is a losing game as it’s difficult, costly and bad for the environment.

As a conscientious vegan (as opposed to a health vegan) I’m interested in this. I mean, I liked eating meat up until the day I didn’t like eating meat - and it had nothing to do with the taste or anything. Something flipped in my brain and I stopped wanting to eat meat. So if these researches can wave their magic wand and grow meat that is close to exactly like real meat, I’m pretty sure I’d eat it (unless in trying real meat again I find that my tastes have changed enough that I no longer like it, a real possibility).

Still there’s something creepy about the whole process:

After perfecting that process, scientists will then need to figure out how to layer tissues to add more bulk, since meat grown in petri dishes lacks the blood vessels needed to deliver nutrients through thick muscle fibers.

It seems to me that even should this become a viable product, it will not (at least initially) resemble real meat very much. Who knows if there will be some sort of longer term health issues in eating such artificial meat. So, I suspect in the real world where scientists don’t actually have magic wands, I might be skeptical of the meat, ironically, for health reasons if not conscientious ones.

Jun 9th, 2007 · Comments RSS · · · · · Tags: animal rights