8 ms·
Worlds Most Expensive Burger: 1/4 million euros
- brianbreslin 15y agoSlightly misleading title. However this reminds me of an episode of better off Ted, in which they create a steak in a lab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Better_Off_Ted_episodessee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Better_Off_Ted_episodes... episode 2
- nestlequ1k 15y agoHmm.. pretend this takes off and the quality of the meat is good. Would a vegan be inclined to eat this lab meat? Seems like most vegans that I talk to are mostly motivated by animal cruelty issues. Just curious.
- marshallp 15y agoAnimal tissue grown without a brain is basically a plant, so in principle there should be no problem for a vegan to eat lab meat.
- ebiester 15y agoNot all vegans are ethical vegans. Religious vegans and vegetarians likely would not eat it, for example, nor would vegans for health reasons.
- merlincorey 15y agoPlease cite your sources regarding veganism being healthy.
- _delirium 15y agoI just read him/her as saying that people who avoid meat for health reasons would likely avoid this meat as well. Whether they're mistaken to avoid meat for health reasons doesn't seem specifically tied to artificial meat.
- sneakay 15y agohttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12826028 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12826028
- latch 15y agowiki has a number of sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan#Health_arguments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan#Health_arguments
- ebiester 15y agoThe claim is that there are individuals who believe veganism is healthier, not that it is healthier. I am not a vegan.
- kleiba 15y agoI'm vegetarian, and I would be happy to have that "meat", depending on the exact production process.
- thristian 15y agoMy sister is a vegetarian, and from what she's told me she started because of animal cruelty issues, but she kept going because (a) it's kind of a point of pride to maintain a lifestyle deliberately different from other people's, no matter how minor, and (b) after not eating meat for a while, the taste becomes strange and unpleasant. Like any 'new' food, she could reacclimatise to it if necessary, but it would require effort. So I'm guessing that many existing vegans and vegetarians wouldn't eat lab-grown meat. It might well cut down on the number of people who become vegetarian in the first place, though.
- bwarp 15y agoI didn't eat meat for about 5 years. One day I just bought a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonalds for no particular reason other than I felt crappy after being sick for two weeks. That was the tastiest thing I'd ever eaten! At the same time, I don't know why I do eat meat now but I seem to crave/need it and just can't shift that. I don't usually actually like it either ironically (apart from that one quarter pounder above).
- dkersten 15y agoI don't know why I do eat meat now but I seem to crave/need it A friend of mine was vegetarian for many years and one day, about two years ago, she collapsed and the doctor told her she needed to eat meat again because her body had stopped processing protein properly and she wasn't getting enough from non-meat alternatives anymore (or something like that, don't remember the exact details now).
- latch 15y agoI'm pretty sure strict vegans (is there any other kind?) would continue to have a problem with it. The original definition is: Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals Note that they consider honey to be an exploitation of animals...so I assume extracting muscle tissues from a cow would also be considered exploitation of animals. Furthermore, it pretty explicitly states "living on the products of the plant kingdom".
- Sniffnoy 15y agoYes, but one has to wonder whether linear output requiring nearly constant animal input, vs. linear output requiring linear animal input, will cause some people to rethink this (thus resulting in a split in veganism). Every burger may ultimately come from exploitation of a cow, but if the burger in front of you does not come from any additional exploitation of a cow, many people may not have a problem with it. Unless there are already existing products that have this property, in which case I guess we have our answer. Or if it's not so non-linear as it sounds, in which case there's no question.
- latch 15y agoWell, there's still the issue of "living on the products of the plant kingdom." The only thing I can think of that's similar would maybe be recycled leather. I still think ethical vegans would have a problem with it, and I don't see this changing the opinion of anyone doing it for health reasons. I think environmental vegans are the most likely to buy into this..if it even becomes an efficient way to produce nutrition/calories. I could certainly see some more pragmatic organizations throwing their weight behind it.."if you must eat beef, at least eat this kind of beef (but consider X, Y and Z as even better alternatives)."
- ido 15y ago
- aaronblohowiak 15y agoPETA, the world's largest pro-vegan organization, offers a $1 million prize for petri-dish meat. http://www.peta.org/features/in-vitro-meat-contest.aspx http://www.peta.org/features/in-vitro-meat-contest.aspx
- hkarthik 15y agoI'm a converted vegetarian, so I miss meat a lot and still crave it quite a bit. I would gladly eat this. My wife, on the other hand, is a lifelong vegetarian that can't stand the odors of cooked meat and anything resembling real meat. So I think among vegetarians it will be a matter of preference and taste. Thankfully the ethics will be left out of it.
- latch 15y agoThe true cost of beef is staggering. It is, by far, one of our most selfish indulgences the rich have. It's sad that our economic model doesn't adequately capture this. A lot of numbers get thrown around, but the amount of grain and water you need for 1 pound of beef is enough to feed something like 25 people. Then there's the environmental impact (land, pollution, ....). The more I travel the world, the harder it is for me to eat beef.
- zcid 15y agoThose claims are only valid for feedlot raised cattle which you shouldn't eat anyway if you care about your health. Cows aren't meant to eat grain. Plus, you get to support your local community by buying from local, responsible farmers. And if you want to be completely honest with yourself, take a good look at industrial agriculture and tell me how self-righteous you feel. Here's a couple of decent articles to start: http://www.alternet.org/story/13900/ http://www.alternet.org/story/13900/ http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/IndustrialAg502.cfm http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/IndustrialAg502.cfm Also, the documentary Food, Inc. is a well done introduction to the issue.
- latch 15y agoThe majority of beef comes from feedlots. 90% of the beef we eat is grain-fed. Also, I can't find any evidence, one way or another, that grass-fed cows take less land or pollute less (in terms of methane). There's no doubt that it's healthier for us, and better for the cows, but there seems to be plenty of back and forth with respect to which of the two is more sustainable. And I don't see anyone arguing that grass-fed cows are more efficient (or even close to as-efficient) than chicken, pork or plants. Thanks for the links on agriculture...going through them now!
- dkersten 15y agoThe majority of beef comes from feedlots. 90% of the beef we eat is grain-fed. Depends on what country you're in, I guess. Here in Ireland cattle are predominately grassfed (though usually are fed at least some grain in the winter too).
- kontinuation 15y agoVegetarians from birth will probably not be inclined to eat this. They've never acquired a taste for meat. I think this is awesome. Livestock are a haven for pollution and pestilence, most recently implicated in producing antibiotic-resistant superbugs that will probably be the death of us all.
- raldi 15y agoI'm waiting for the technology to reach the point where we can create whole new meats. Like, imagine a world where pigs had never evolved, and then a scientist, working in a lab, invented bacon. They'd make millions and millions of dollars, and dramatically improve the lives of a billion fat people. And even in our world, just think: There are meats out there, waiting to be invented, that are a thousand times more delicious than bacon.
- celoyd 15y agoI’m kind of hoping cultured human is delicious. I’m going to send a cheek swab to a PO box, and six weeks later a slab of my own pseudo-shoulder will show up packed in dry ice. My first experiment will be: 1 kg own cultured flesh 3 cups orange juice lime, kiwifruit, or pineapple juice to taste 1 clove of garlic, mashed pepper and salt to taste Combine and put in a saucepan on low heat without a lid. Let simmer until the liquids steam off and it begins to fry in the rendered fat (about 2 hours). At this point it should be very tender and break apart into threads. Serve over rice or in tacos.
- peteretep 15y agoThere's something a little terrifying about this, which I can't quite place.
- dodo53 15y agoWell cannibalism is a pretty strong taboo and probably we have evolved disgust reactions to it, but rationally if it hasn't killed anybody and doesn't cause any health issues (like BSE analogues) what's wrong with it?
- random_ind_dude 15y agoI think people do end up eating a little bit of others everyday. Won't some of the skin cells shed by humans everyday end up in the food they prepare?
- 15y ago
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- MrGrey 15y agoI'm a meat-eater and I want my meal to bleed and experience death.
- colonel_panic 15y ago"... they are encouraged to exercise and build up their strength by being given their own gym equipment (pieces of Velcro to which they can anchor themselves in order to stretch and relax spontaneously)." Creepy. Do they give these cells an electric jolt to make them exercise?
- gfodor 15y agoAlmost as important as the technology is the marketing. They need to get on message for this even at this early stage. Calling it "Artificial Meat" is already conceding the battle. It's not artificial, it's real meat. "Cultured"? Conjures up images of lab coats. "Man-made"? Not much better. I'd say some better ideas: - Humane meat - Painless meat - Slaughterless meat - Guiltless meat - Pure meat To me, pure meat probably wins. It's meat, but without all the ugly impurities introduced by having an animal grow it in the wild. See how much of a difference successful framing can make to how you "feel" about a product?
- maxerickson 15y agoMake it cheap enough and the branding matters a lot less. Just cycle through brands until once sticks. The meat products industry is already full of potentially disturbing stuff that people think is delicious (hotdogs and chicken nugget goo (really, mechanically separated chicken) come to mind).
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y agoPure meat seems a little ambiguous, i would call it post-meat (yeah, with the hyphen included); because it sounds like and advanced version of meat and also to honour Dr. Post, one of the leaders of this invention.
- nodata 15y agoPost-meat sounds like it was meat, and now it's something undefined. "But it was meat!"
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y agoWell, is not technically meat because it was never part of an animal (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meat http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meat).
- sliverstorm 15y agoIf you want to make it sound advanced, you got to do what the masses will understand. I am loath to suggest it, but: Meat 2.0
- ahoyhere 15y agoGiven the issues with "whole" organisms which are genetically modified, and our continuing "tiny keyhole" understanding of nutrition, it seems very unlikely that lab grown meat will be nutritionally comparable as real meat.
- mvzink 15y agoNot comparable, but that doesn't mean worse. It will be easier and cheaper to provide good nutrition to artificial meat than it is to whole cows. It's easy to imagine that the cost-cutting inhumanity of ranches includes poor nutrition. Besides that, few people eat beef for its nutrition (beyond the protein), and McDonald's meat is probably more tuned for 1) ease of production and 2) taste than nutritional value.
- dbbo 15y ago"I could feed thousands of people, but instead I think I'll eat a common food that was created in a ridiculously expensive way." --the mindset of the first person to try one of those burgers.
- urdnot 15y agoVegetarians from birth will probably not be inclined to eat this. They've never acquired a taste for meat. I think this is awesome. Livestock are a haven for pollution and pestilence, most recently implicated in producing antibiotic-resistant superbugs that will probably be the death of us all.
- stretchwithme 15y agononsense. I can make one for you at twice the price.
- stretchwithme 15y agoThe real benefit of this will be ending overfishing.
- thret 15y agoActually... you may be right. We've already been at agriculture so long and so extensively that the damage has been done. The ocean is not yet completely ruined.
- gerggerg 15y agoThe real benefit of artificial non-descript meat sausage will be ending overfishing? I'm assuming you mean when they come out with artificial fish meat, but I can't find any mention of that in the article.
- stretchwithme 15y agofish meat is muscle too.
- Tsagadai 15y agoHaving been to a factory farm that used homogenized grain and had "attendants" in white coats and re-breathers this really isn't far from the present reality. Anything that can make livestock mass production more humane is a very good thing.
- loceng 15y agoWhy? Because we can!