4 ms·

I'm skeptical that this is only 6 months away (6 years sounds more reasonable), but I'm still curious about the ramifications of synthetic meat. Would it be mo

I'm skeptical that this is only 6 months away (6 years sounds more reasonable), but I'm still curious about the ramifications of synthetic meat. Would it be more energy efficient to grow meat in a factory than in the fields? What are the energy requirements for a pound of lab meat vs a pound of pig meat? More importantly, what would happen if it turned out cheaper and tasted the same? How many industries depend on eating meat? What would happen to all the pigs if nobody wanted to eat them?

sliverstorm 15y ago
Even more interesting, at least to me- what will the vegetarians do? As for all the animals, their populations would obviously get scaled back. The transition would not happen overnight, there would be plenty of time. Though you may have a point- domestic pigs would likely become pets and little else. However, chickens still lay eggs, cows still make milk, and sheep and goats still produce milk and wool.
- spacemanaki 15y ago
  This vegetarian would rather eat "real" meat from a farm like Polyface (featured in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and some documentaries) than eat lab meat, at least the first many iterations of lab meat. I don't want anyone to think I'm spreading FUD, I'm genuinely interested and concerned. Who knows what the nutritional consequences would be? We've only just started to realize that there might be some detrimental effects due to consuming the products of a corn-soy (duo-)monoculture farms, all in the name of efficiency, what of lab-meat? Plus, I'm just creeped out by it. I do think it's valuable work, and largely inevitable, and wouldn't suggest for a moment that we (humans) not fund this kind of research.
- gte910h 15y ago
  Your points about non-meat animal products still very much hold still. Pigs would be pets and sources of organ scaffolding for humans. Additionally, the yearlong production of milk in animals requires contant pregnancies, so will still cause many animals to killed. For instance, goat milk products kill far more male goats than any demands for the meat. There are multiple types of vegetarians. Ones who dislike the moral part of meat will not have an issue with the new meat. There are energy consumption vegetarians. If this new meat is considerably close to the energy requirements for a vegetarian diet, they may go for it. The health vegetarians who are afraid of adulterated food may go for this meat now, but the ones who are afraid of the general higher cancer risk from red- meat based diets, etc, will likely not be persuaded to change.
  - tejaswiy 15y ago
    As a vegetarian, I'd eat it, but hold off for a while atleast to look for potential health consequences. I'm not too worried about nutritional imbalance because I don't think this will ever be my primary source of nutrition.
    - gte910h 15y ago
      There is also the "Eeew, ick" vegetarians, they're unlikely to change.
      - crazydiamond 15y ago
        As someone who gave up non-veg food about 15 years back, I'd welcome lab-meat since it avoids killing animals. However, whether we would adopt it ourselves seems to be irrelevant. I, for one, would not like to cultivate the taste for meat again. As an animal lover, I'd certainly not like to see menu items like "Synthetic dog meat, tastes just like puppies". Going to the extreme, replace dog and puppies with human and babies. I'll stick to veggies, thanks.
  - DennisP 15y ago
    Seems like lab-grown milk would be easier than lab-grown meat. No texture issues. I wonder if anyone's working on that.
    - wlievens 15y ago
      The ethical motivation is a lot smaller though, I presume.
      - gte910h 15y ago
        The energy motivation is a TON of a lot smaller. Milk doesn't take near the energy to make as meat.
- ansy 15y ago
  Vegetarians are pretty diverse and really can't be considered as a single group. Some vegetarians eat fish, some sneak pepperoni pizza, some eat dairy, some will eat anything but steak, some extend the definition beyond food to clothing and furniture. The addition of test tube meat will just add one more variable to further diversify people under the "the vegetarians" label. In a similar vein, would someone who identifies as Jewish or a Muslim eat test tube bacon? Well, some already eat real pork and don't get worked up about it. It just depends on how you interpret and practice your beliefs. And we've all got different beliefs that make us do different things.
  - intranation 15y ago
    How can someone who eats fish, pepperoni, or steak call themselves vegetarian without any irony?
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - crazydiamond 15y ago
      He said "but steak". There are various kinds of vegetarians as he says, some who have eggs, some who have milk products etc. Regarding fish, I actually have relatives from Kerala, South India who are vegetarians who eat fish. They call it "the vegetable of the sea".
spacemanaki 15y ago
This article/study claims lab meat would be more energy efficient: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200130u http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200130u Linked from the New Scientist article.
windsurfer 15y ago
Some obvious answers and such: * I believe it is 6 months away from the start of testing legal approval * it will not taste the exact same due to the different ways its grown, at least at first. It will be more easily customized to fit peoples requirements, however. * the meat industry will not collapse in a day. Animal requirements won't change overnight. The industry will adjust slowly unless they get lobbyists to ban this technology (which they will attempt to do, of course) * due to the innefficient way animals grow, lab-grown meat has the potential to be more efficient, but won't be at first
apostlion 15y ago
Not all of the pig/cow energy is spent on producing muscle mass/fat, essentially, it is eliminated with industrial production. Initially, it probably will be quite expensive, but it is most certainly _potentially_ cheaper than real meat due to tech advances and economies of scale. As for farm animals, they will be just bred less. Nobody will mass slaughter them just because there is a cheaper source of meat.

sliverstorm 15y ago

Even more interesting, at least to me- what will the vegetarians do? As for all the animals, their populations would obviously get scaled back. The transition would not happen overnight, there would be plenty of time. Though you may have a point- domestic pigs would likely become pets and little else. However, chickens still lay eggs, cows still make milk, and sheep and goats still produce milk and wool.

spacemanaki 15y ago
This vegetarian would rather eat "real" meat from a farm like Polyface (featured in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and some documentaries) than eat lab meat, at least the first many iterations of lab meat. I don't want anyone to think I'm spreading FUD, I'm genuinely interested and concerned. Who knows what the nutritional consequences would be? We've only just started to realize that there might be some detrimental effects due to consuming the products of a corn-soy (duo-)monoculture farms, all in the name of efficiency, what of lab-meat? Plus, I'm just creeped out by it. I do think it's valuable work, and largely inevitable, and wouldn't suggest for a moment that we (humans) not fund this kind of research.
gte910h 15y ago
Your points about non-meat animal products still very much hold still. Pigs would be pets and sources of organ scaffolding for humans. Additionally, the yearlong production of milk in animals requires contant pregnancies, so will still cause many animals to killed. For instance, goat milk products kill far more male goats than any demands for the meat. There are multiple types of vegetarians. Ones who dislike the moral part of meat will not have an issue with the new meat. There are energy consumption vegetarians. If this new meat is considerably close to the energy requirements for a vegetarian diet, they may go for it. The health vegetarians who are afraid of adulterated food may go for this meat now, but the ones who are afraid of the general higher cancer risk from red- meat based diets, etc, will likely not be persuaded to change.
- tejaswiy 15y ago
  As a vegetarian, I'd eat it, but hold off for a while atleast to look for potential health consequences. I'm not too worried about nutritional imbalance because I don't think this will ever be my primary source of nutrition.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    There is also the "Eeew, ick" vegetarians, they're unlikely to change.
    - crazydiamond 15y ago
      As someone who gave up non-veg food about 15 years back, I'd welcome lab-meat since it avoids killing animals. However, whether we would adopt it ourselves seems to be irrelevant. I, for one, would not like to cultivate the taste for meat again. As an animal lover, I'd certainly not like to see menu items like "Synthetic dog meat, tastes just like puppies". Going to the extreme, replace dog and puppies with human and babies. I'll stick to veggies, thanks.
- DennisP 15y ago
  Seems like lab-grown milk would be easier than lab-grown meat. No texture issues. I wonder if anyone's working on that.
  - wlievens 15y ago
    The ethical motivation is a lot smaller though, I presume.
    - gte910h 15y ago
      The energy motivation is a TON of a lot smaller. Milk doesn't take near the energy to make as meat.
ansy 15y ago
Vegetarians are pretty diverse and really can't be considered as a single group. Some vegetarians eat fish, some sneak pepperoni pizza, some eat dairy, some will eat anything but steak, some extend the definition beyond food to clothing and furniture. The addition of test tube meat will just add one more variable to further diversify people under the "the vegetarians" label. In a similar vein, would someone who identifies as Jewish or a Muslim eat test tube bacon? Well, some already eat real pork and don't get worked up about it. It just depends on how you interpret and practice your beliefs. And we've all got different beliefs that make us do different things.
- intranation 15y ago
  How can someone who eats fish, pepperoni, or steak call themselves vegetarian without any irony?
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - crazydiamond 15y ago
    He said "but steak". There are various kinds of vegetarians as he says, some who have eggs, some who have milk products etc. Regarding fish, I actually have relatives from Kerala, South India who are vegetarians who eat fish. They call it "the vegetable of the sea".

spacemanaki 15y ago

This article/study claims lab meat would be more energy efficient: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200130u http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200130u Linked from the New Scientist article.

windsurfer 15y ago

Some obvious answers and such: * I believe it is 6 months away from the start of testing legal approval * it will not taste the exact same due to the different ways its grown, at least at first. It will be more easily customized to fit peoples requirements, however. * the meat industry will not collapse in a day. Animal requirements won't change overnight. The industry will adjust slowly unless they get lobbyists to ban this technology (which they will attempt to do, of course) * due to the innefficient way animals grow, lab-grown meat has the potential to be more efficient, but won't be at first

apostlion 15y ago

Not all of the pig/cow energy is spent on producing muscle mass/fat, essentially, it is eliminated with industrial production. Initially, it probably will be quite expensive, but it is most certainly _potentially_ cheaper than real meat due to tech advances and economies of scale. As for farm animals, they will be just bred less. Nobody will mass slaughter them just because there is a cheaper source of meat.