With every advance such as this…
The first lab-grown hamburger will cost around 250,000 euros ($345,000) to produce, according to Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, who hopes to unveil such a delicacy soon.
Experts say the meat’s potential for saving animals’ lives, land, water, energy and the planet itself could be enormous.
… science inches closer to the Holy Grail of Sustainable Agriculture: “How to turn grass into protein?“
And how to turn Italic into Roman. ;^)
Are they going to brand-name it as “Mooremeat”?
A few friends of mine have been turning grass into protein for years. They feed the grass to a cow.
Yea, 1.3 Billion and growing Chinese are gonna love it!
They’ll probably also stop eating fish, building coal power plants, importing Canadian/ Australian milk, and then buy some forest bongo’s to chant to the tree gods.
Got to get up early in the morning to beat you, Joe.
Soylent Green is people!!!
How will the enviro/granola/organic set resolve this conundrum?
Does this not have the potential of being genetically modified (GM) food, that is evil/nasty/abomination, as it were?
Luckily, this experiment (in bad taste) will never prove viable, despite the utopian views of the socialist labcoats.
Maybe they could make moose burgers out of barley.
“The first lab-grown hamburger”
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Ugh!
No problem Kate I only posted in case some of your more citified readers didn’t recognize the Angus in your picture.
Remeber all the hipe from the 70’s about soy based burgers and steaks going to replace actual meat in our diets? Tofu all squished together to form the shape of a steak…and tasted like crap!
Nothing tastes as good as REAL CANADIAN beef on the bar-b-que!
Nothing tastes as good as REAL ALBERTA beef on the bar-b-que!
FIFY fixed it for you
The topic surprises me, given how hysterical the EUnichs have been in the past about ‘Frankenfoods’.
But the livestock population will still exist and expand with no natural predators (like the bolt gun) and fart us into global warming oblivion.
Gimme a good ground top sirlion on an egg bun cooked rare-any day.
How could anyone eat that s#it?
“The first lab-grown hamburger will cost around 250,000 euros ($345,000) to produce, according to Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, who hopes to unveil such a delicacy soon.”
Big deal. Monica Lewinsky developed a lap-raised wiener years ago…amd she did it for free.
Perhaps they should invent a cow that wants to be eaten. A nice juicy Adams Burger to go please.
Hindus rejoice.
Just a reminder of what Dwight.D.Eisenhaur said,DONT LET GOVTS FUND UNIVERSITY RESEARCH.Also,horses fart,cows dont.
“Also,horses fart,cows dont.”
Vegetarians do too.
Vat-grown meat could be pretty cool… for space travel. On earth though? Shoot a cow.
Vat-grown cloned skin and organs for transplants, THAT would be awesome. Vat-grown leather could be pretty cool too, if they can do it cheaper than off-the-cow.
But for just food? Idiotic waste of technology, totally the wrong direction to go. More people in Canada should kill their own food, you ask me. Kinda like earning it, plus you get your hunter-thang satisfied.
The cow may turn grass to protein, but it does so very inefficiently. That’s why the vats are a great idea. They are a part of the future.
It’s a start, and I rather hope it succeeds, nut so far only muscle: needs “blood,” fats, etc.
Alas if (when) it supplants most livestock raising, millions of animals will be slaughtered: cows, pigs, and others may be restricted to zoos or become extinct. This is one of the (several) things that bothers me about “ethical” vegetarians, latter-day PETA, F.O.E. and others, who seem to believe that if humans stop eating meat we would nonetheless maintain billions of meat animals.
7 lbs of grass one T-bone. I’ll eat the T-bone you can have the grass. Can I keep the stuff that comes from the other end?
$345,000 for one hamburger sounds like a bargain-basement price if the OWS protestors achieve their goal of raising the minimum wage until everybody will be as equally rich as the 1% percenters — burger flippers at McDonald’s will be making $10,000 an hour anyway!
Wow, what a cool utopia that will be — we can become just like Nazi Germany was before WWII when Germans revelled in their own utopia: the German Mark devalued to the point that you had to fill a wheelbarrow full of money in order to buy a loaf of bread! Utopian economics is so practical, just ask a West German from 1945, or an East German from 1990.
The cow may turn grass to protein, but it does so very inefficiently. That’s why the vats are a great idea. They are a part of the future.
Sooo, what will the grass be used for?
“The cow may turn grass to protein, but it does so very inefficiently.”
Bugs and bacteria are -very- efficient. So, you wanna eat bugs?
“The cow may turn grass to protein, but it does so very inefficiently
Naw. There are vast areas of this country that can only support grass and not be cropped. The most effient use of that land is have cattle turn grass into meat. Converting grass into protein is something a pig or chicken can’t do.
Been doing some research on that cow fart thing. Apparently they ‘exhuast’ more methane through their mouths than their anus. Both cows and sheep according to what I read. Man, you learn something new everyday. That’s why I embrace life!
Just don’t use genetically modified crops to make the hamburger./sarc
Mmmmmmm … whitish pale muscle-like strips! Them’s good eatin’!
Thanks Kate, we were long overdue for some ignorant anti-science garbage. We need to be diligent, or else we might have to experience the advancement of the human race…the horror!
Sounds promising. We eat much more margarine than butter these days, no reason not substitute artificial meat for the real thing if it can be done cheaper and more efficiently than the real thing. I’m guessing we are quite a ways from that.
. science inches closer to the Holy Grail of Sustainable Agriculture: “How to turn grass into protein?”
The agriculture we have been practicing for 20,000 years isn’t sustainable? How long will we have to do it before the intelligensia decide that it has been sustained for long enough to be considered sustainable?
“Experts say the meat’s potential for saving animals’ lives, land, water, energy and the planet itself could be enormous.”
How is this going to save animals lives? Farm animals exist because we raise them for food. if we start growing food in labs we will stop breeding animals for food and they will never exist to have their lives saved.
Although I am not a Malthusian and don’t have moral problems with eating a well-cooked, succulent steak extracted from a cow with big, soft brown eyes, I think research into growing meat in a lab is a great thing. It’s also inevitable given the research into tissue engineering for medical applications which very few people oppose. The prospect of growing elephant ivory or leather or other materials currently obtainable only from animals is also appealing. The problem will come when zealots and corrupt politicians start putting taxpayers on the hook subsidizing technologies which are not mature enough for real commercial applications as they are currently for “alternative” energy sources.
I can definitely imagine a day when meat for human consumption is factory grown and economically viable. I can even imagine a day when the taste, texture and form of factory grown meat diverges substantially from the taste, texture and form of naturally produced meat – and consumers won’t care. People can get used to eating things that aren’t like the “real” foods that they replace. Example: margarine. I know plenty of people who prefer the taste of margarine to the taste of real butter.
minuteman at November 11, 2011 8:59 PM:
How is this going to save animals lives? Farm animals exist because we raise them for food. if we start growing food in labs we will stop breeding animals for food and they will never exist to have their lives saved.
You clearly don’t understand how this is all going to work. Let me break it down for you.
1. The government will subsidize a technology for lab grown meat which is not ready for primetime.
2. Consumers won’t want the lab grown meat for a number of reasons so the government will incentivize the consumption of lab meat with subsidies and de-incentivize the consumption of natural meat with massive taxes on the consumption and production of natural meat.
3. People in the existing meat production industry will complain that their livelihood is being destroyed.
4. The media will highlight the plight of displaced workers in the natural meat industry and demand that the government help them out.
5. The government will setup a variety of programs for natural meat producers. One program will pay the producers to not produce meat. Another program will pay the producers to take care of stray cats and dogs so that they won’t have to be put to sleep. Another program will pay meat producers to husband endangered species so that they can be reintroduced into the ecosystem and help it be returned to its natural state (because everyone needs more large predators roaming around near their home).
6. Finally, if the other programs don’t reduce the number of cows, pigs, chickens and sheep sufficiently, then a program will be created to distribute condoms to farm animals and funds will be set aside to provide abortion services for farm animals.
Sorry, I left some items off my 9:55 post.
2a. A black market for natural meat will arise.
2b. New government agencies will be created to combat the danger of untaxed and, possibly, tainted black market meat.
2c. Indian tribes will take advantage of the situation and make a killing selling natural meat, claiming, among other things, that preventing them from producing and selling natural meat would amount to cultural genocide, the destruction of a part of their traditional heritage.
in order to facilitate the development of laboratory synth-meat, a huge tax must be immediately implemented on all forms of natural protein to underscore the “real cost” of so called natural food production.
Lets intensify the clear cutting of the rainforests to grow soy!
Birkenstocks with socks? Yeah!
Joe 3:06 I thought the picture was of the Saskatchewan Roughriders cheer leaders.
345 thousand bucks is still a bit steep but once they bring it down to around 100 bucks they should sell like hotcakes. Keep an eye on your dog and cat if this takes off. Peta is sure every cattle rancher want to see his beef die of old age.
I wonder if the same lab can make leather for our boots and shoes?
No animals were harmed in the preparation of your dinner.
Ever closer to turning us into literal sheep. Grazing on grass. While the Kleptocracy eats in palaces.
Nicely done, Sadistic. You wouldn’t think anyone would have to explain such things HERE.
famous last words: “SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!”
Oops! ..hadn’t noticed RG’s earlier entry..my bad!
The expanding demand for meat as the Chinese and Indian middle class grows, will mean there will be tremendous need for cultured meat. Real meat will sell for a premium, and the cultured meat will make it possible for people to buy affordable Big Macs.
Yeah, more than $345,000 per hamburger would be a premium price.
I’ll buy one lab grown burger, feel good for a few days thinking about the cow’s life that I saved then realize that I’m going to be homeless and starve to death because I spent my entire life’s savings doing my one good deed.
You realize of course that this research will come to an end when the anti genetically modified food crowd get wind of it.
“The first lab-grown hamburger will cost around 250,000 euros ($345,000) to produce,”
Hm, that’s just a BIT beyond my means at present,so will stick to the old-fashioned type of meat,for now.
I imagine rural folk are in danger of having to feed all the unwanted bovines,so I have a practical solution which I offer at no charge; the citizens of Green cities like Vancouver,who already have wheat fields in the front yards and chicken coops in the back yard,should each be given a momma cow, daddy cow,and baby cow,to raise as their own.
Maybe they could be fed on the wheat from the front yard.
@ dmorris
That would not fly as it would discrimminate against the majority that live in apartments. Maybe they should have dibbs on the baby cow. Could always keep it on the balcony. Considering this is Vancouver , good chance of acceptance. Gregor is that type of Mayor.