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Seafood Without the Sea: Will Lab-Grown Fish Hook Consumers?
- aviditas 7y agoI am seriously excited for this to become available to chefs. There is a rampant issue in sushi with fish fraud and this would be a clean and ethical solution.
- pvaldes 7y agoWhy do you think that this would be more ethical than allowing fishes live in the sea?
- siruncledrew 7y ago> BlueNalu is not looking to replace wild-caught or farm-raised seafood, but is aiming to become a third alternative for seafood eaters. Since they are targeting “fish that cannot be easily farmed”, the whiff I get from this idea is akin to synthetic diamonds. This lab grown fish is an alternative to the rare and high-end fish that is harder (and more expensive) to get. This is not a cheap replacement for standard consumers buying filets at the grocery store for weeknight dinners, but a niche offer for chefs and clientele wanting the experience of eating particular fish cuisine. It would be disingenuous to say this is going to save the oceans. Fish are useful to the environment and it would be better if their populations rose, as overfishing is causing massive oceanic destruction. Comparing this kind of lab grown fish to lab grown beef is actually an inverse comparison because a central point of lab grown beef is addressing the issue (and environmental impact) of humans farming too many cows for beef, whereas with fish we have the opposite problem where humans have decimated the populations so much we actually need to lift fish populations.
- neltnerb 7y agoI don't think I follow. If I had the choice of eating a wild bluefin tuna versus lab grown bluefish tuna meat, I'd eat the lab grown meat every time because... overfishing of bluefin tuna is a serious problem. There is never a silver bullet, but if we can improve stocks of any wild fish via displacement, it's working to save the oceans.
- BurningFrog 7y ago> It would be disingenuous to say this is going to save the oceans. Because it's only for niche expensive fish? That's where they have to start when the technology is expensive. If and when it becomes cheaper, we might reach ocean saving levels. Or we might not.
- greendestiny_re 7y agoI have a sinking feeling this kind of synthetic food production is just a bait for health-wary consumers. After reeling in enough customers, lab-grown fish produced for profit will inevitably have to deteriorate in quality to maintain/increase revenue. Can this kind of endeavor scale? Can it be introduced to schools, for example? I'm sure some consumers will swallow the idea hook, line and sinker but I see it as just another cool concept in an ocean filled with bottom-feeders.
- taneq 7y agoWell they're not suddenly going to gain in mercury content or anything so I'd expect they'll always have an edge in health. Also, 11/10 with the fishy idioms. :)
- Joakal 7y agoOr just have land farms of fish: http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/ http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/
- pelagic_sky 7y agoI sea what you did there.
- rqs 7y ago> I have a sinking feeling this kind of synthetic food production is just a bait for health-wary consumers I'm a futuristic person, I like to imagine what I can do far into the future, something like: "Hey space ship, I like to have some roasted Salmon Sushi sprinkled with tomato paste to be delivered to the observation deck please. Thanks!" And I believe synthetic food is the first step to archive that.
- perfmode 7y agodo you know why you want such a such thing? is it merely indulgence?
- wpietri 7y ago
- jacknews 7y agoIndoor fish farming seems like a much more practical approach to solve the problems inherent in catching wild fish to eat (and the pollution that outdoor fish farms cause), and a much more logical next step for seafood than lab-grown muscle tissue. Lab-meat makes most sense for beef, which is an incredibly inefficient and habitat-destroying food source, and is also often served in a processed form anyway, ie as minced-beef in burgers, bolognese, sausages, etc, etc.
- RhodesianHunter 7y agoMany fish (Tuna being a prime example) can't be farmed. There's also a notable decrease in health and nutritional content of farmed fish.
- jacknews 7y agoCurrently, perhaps, but many advances are being made. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-future-of-fish-farming-may-be-indoors/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-future-of-fis...
- pvaldes 7y agoTuna is not easy to breed, not at all, but can be farmed. I had seen tuna babies born in captivity. The tiny critters are all mouth. Is a long term effort.
- asciimo 7y agoIt is likely more efficient to scale lab-grown fish than it is to scale farmed fish. Cell farming is currently expensive an inefficient, like any new technology. But this can be improved. Yet it will always take at least x energy input to create at most x/10 edible fish output. (https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-10-energy-rule-in-a-food-chain.html https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-10-energy-rule-in-a-foo...)
- open-source-ux 7y agoThe Marine Conservation Society (MSC) has an excellent Good Fish Guide if you want to find out which fish are overfished: "Use the Good Fish Guide to find out which fish are the most sustainable (Green rated), and which are the least sustainable (Red rated)." https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/search In the UK, supermarkets display the MSC logo on frozen fish products to indicate the fish is sustainably sourced. They did a recent Good Fish Fingers guide for 2018 (UK only): https://www.mcsuk.org/responsible-seafood/fish-finger-guide https://www.mcsuk.org/responsible-seafood/fish-finger-guide
- pvaldes 7y agoIs enough dificult yet by traditional methods. There is a limit to the tick of a meat piece if oxigen and food must rely in simple difussion. Fishes need omega3 fatty acids to survive. They are unable to synthesize it. How do you effectively feed with omega-3 the cells of an animal without stomach? I wonder also how cell excrection would be solved without a few tubes and filters to collect it. Would you eat fish fillets growing soaked in "fish urine"? The list of challenges to solve is really long. The more interesting goal here is changing the perception of public about what is food. There are lots of problems with fish breeding. Bad husbandry practices will produce easily a lot percentage of deformed fishes in the pool (lacking one or two eyes, lack of opercles is also common and skeletal sclerosis can produce "Z" plied fishes easily also). Those are unmarketable today. If you just say that it was cultivated in a laboratory then abismal quality products could suddently enter in a market chain and turn into acceptable or even top quality. Even better than the real thing. But a good comforting lie is still a lie.
- labgrown 7y agoLooks like another firm trying to pull an "impossible" - hype up something as lab grown meat, sell veggieburgers.
- intopieces 7y agoImpossible is plant based, not lab grown.
- ci5er 7y agoThat was the point of the comment.
- intopieces 7y agoBut Impossible does not and has not ever claimed to be lab grown meat.
- ci5er 7y agoFair enough. I was responding to your response to GP (which claimed it did so claim before the bait&switch). I have no dog in this hunt - just tracking grammar and claims. Probably makes me a Nazi.
- intopieces 7y agoWhat is never brought up in the lab grown meat discussion is the potential to mitigate human suffering. Working a fishing boat is hard. Working a poultry plant is hard and psychologically stressful. Lab grown meat could eliminate that for thousands of people.
- GiorgioG 7y agoLab grown meat could also eliminate jobs for thousands of people. Got any ideas how a 50-something fisherman is supposed to put those lab grown meals on his/her table once their job is gone?
- intopieces 7y agoNo industry is safe from disruption. Governments need robust training programs and social safety nets for late career individuals in all industries in transition.
- dqybh 7y agoRetraining is hard and will become useless when more and more jobs are destroyed. UBI is an example of "For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong". So what do we do?
- BurningFrog 7y agoI'm not impressed with academics who think all physical labor is torture. NOT EVERYONE IS LIKE YOU OR WANT TO BE LIKE YOU! Sorry for the shouting...
- intopieces 7y agohttps://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_075579/lang--en/index.htm https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/W... “The ILO is keenly aware that people in the fishing sector often face harsh or difficult working conditions: they may spend long periods at sea and are frequently exposed to unpredictable and dangerous conditions. In a number of countries, the fatality rates for persons in the fishing sector are many times greater than the national average, for example higher than those for fire-fighters or police. These rates may exceed 150 to 180 per 100,000 workers, rivalled only by such other hazardous occupations as forestry and coal mining.”
- cryptonector 7y agoYes, I would eat lab-grown meat (fish or otherwise).
- ipsum2 7y agoI'm skeptical. This article makes huge claims about what they've done, but looking at BlueNalu's website, there are no pictures of the lab or actual fish that they've made. This seems like a submarine article (http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html) no pun intended.