Vat meat - almost there!

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Treehugger[/url]]It's long been an electrifying possibility: Red meat without the environmental drawbacks. Meat without animal cruelty. Meat without industrial scale cattle ranches, without the vast drain on resources required to raise millions of cows. Meat without the forestland razed for grazing room, without the methane emissions.

In an attempt to bring about such a world, researchers have been diligently pursuing laboratory-grown meat for years. Supermarkets are in line to sell it. And evidently, a breakthrough is near: some scientists speculate that we might see the first lab-grown sausage arrive in just six months. Six months after that, a lab-burger.

...

The lab-grown meat feels and behaves a lot like regular meat -- in part because Post actually manually exercises the synthetic tissue. With Velcro. Seriously. ...The lab meat's appearance is still an issue (it looks anemic and whitish) but if he's on to aesthetic concerns, then this stuff is probably more than ready for McDonald's.

New Scientist editorial

Original article (paywall)

I guess this doesn't have to be P&C, but I grew up vegan and read too many cyberpunk novels, so I figure it will wind up here eventually anyway.

What will be the term for people who only eat vat-meat (rather than natural I mean, not exclusively meat) out of ethical concerns? Oddly, vegetarian may still apply.

As long as it tastes good, I'd eat vat meat in preference to the real stuff. I love steak especially, and if I could have steak minus cow death, that would be awesome.

I think the descriptive word would pretty much have to be vatatarian.

Ooooh, good one.

I'm there. I don't think the appearance would be as much of a problem as he thinks, given that the McRib is fairly popular and it's a thin gray slab of meat-like substance.

I'd go for some vat meat. There's a lot of stuff that you don't really need the pristine steak-like appearance for. (Burritos and so forth are what immediately come to mind, because I could really go for one right about now.)

Now, I'd like it to improve so I could have steaks without cow murder, but as it is now, it'd still be handy.

I'll bet it tastes like -- despair.

Having steaks that fit perfectly on my rectangular grill? Awesome. I wonder if they'll marble corporate logos into them with fat.

LilCodger wrote:

I'll bet it tastes like -- despair.

You know, it is a distinct possibility that's what current steak tastes like. What if we end up missing the taste of despair?

Kannon wrote:
LilCodger wrote:

I'll bet it tastes like -- despair.

You know, it is a distinct possibility that's what current steak tastes like. What if we end up missing the taste of despair?

Perhaps we can say mean things about how it will never be a real cow over speakers.

So long as it tastes like what they market it as I'm all for it. If vat grown steak tastes like steak then I see no reason not to buy it.

When/if this goes on sale, I wonder what the price difference is going to be?

People will freak out over this, but I would advise them to not have a (synthetic) cow, man.

If it tastes the same, don't care. I'd chew away.

I'd go for a vat-burger any day. Not only is it more environmentally efficient, it looks like you would skip a lot of the contamination concerns that come from industrial-scale slaughterhouses.

Yeah, and you're not going to get tumors and such ground up in the meat.

Q-stone: Hurry up and volunteer as a vatmeat tester. You can be 'The Vatman!'

I think this would be the point where I seriously consider going vegan.

Might want to wait 5-10 (or 20) years to see what the long term effects of eating this stuff long term and/or in large quantity are.

There will likely always be people claiming the "real thing" taste better (even though biologically speaking this IS meat) as soon as you tell them what they just ate. As such there will likely always be a market for farming and slaughtering real animals.

You guys obviously don't have a lot of experience with cows. If any creature on this planet is genetically designed to be eaten, it's the cow.

bandit0013 wrote:

You guys obviously don't have a lot of experience with cows. If any creature on this planet is genetically designed to be eaten, it's the cow.

Science Fact 101: it was humans who selectively engineered the modern domestic cow to be the way it is today, so what you said was true.

Seriously, if it fulfills the normal gastronomic criterion of, taste, texture, aroma, no one except certain people would object to vat meat.
Especially true if it's cheaper than real meat.

Yeah, and you're not going to get tumors and such ground up in the meat.

A) it's all meat, and it all digests the same;
B) Vat meat can probably develop tumors too, and I rather doubt they'll worry about it.

It's people. Vat meat is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

Jayhawker wrote:

It's people. Vat meat is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

At least it isn't poople.

I wonder if imams and rabbis will consider vat-grown meat halal/kosher. For vat-grown beef it's probably not so much of an issue as it would be for vat-grown pork. Is it still forbidden if it's not actually from a pig?

I love the idea of vat meat. It eliminates any possibility of animal cruelty, provides an ideal quality and texture, and, best of all, no more biting into things that crunch when they aren't supposed to.

Sign me up. I already eat hamburger when I can have steak.

I would eat it. Although, it would probably mean I would need to find a new job.

Bear wrote:

I think this would be the point where I seriously consider going vegan.

Likewise. I'm already halfway to vegan and lab meat would certainly be a motivator to go all in.

I think once people start eating vat meat, they are going to develop an irresistable desire to eat brains.

Irongut wrote:

I think once people start eating vat meat, they are going to develop an irresistable desire to eat brains.

If we can make vat-brains, we will finally all be safe from the zombie apocalypse.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

If we can make vat-brains, we will finally all be safe from the zombie apocalypse.

Unless a zombie gets into the vat-meat factory and falls into the input. Suddenly, anyone who eats at McTasty Burger will be infected!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Irongut wrote:

I think once people start eating vat meat, they are going to develop an irresistable desire to eat brains.

If we can make vat-brains, we will finally all be safe from the zombie apocalypse.

IMAGE(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/262/humanbrains.jpg)

Like most things... nothing will come of this unless the Porn Industry gets involved.

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