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Researchers believe that meats could soon be produced in a lab rather than a field
Researchers developing new meat products grown from stem cells say that the first products, which should be ready within the next year, could begin a movement to more sustainable meat production.
Speaking with FoodNavigator, Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who is leading the research into lab grown meats, said that his team are currently aiming to produce small strands of meat which can then be processed to produce burgers and sausage type foods.
However, he said that the long term goals of the project have to be to grow much larger pieces of meat, such as steaks and chops, if the process was to succeed in helping to solve the ever growing problem of world hunger.
Post said that the current project is a ‘proof of principle’ project, which will require a lot more development before lab grown meats are commercially viable. However he added that he did see the technology being used commercially “not too far in the future.”
“Our goal is to build one burger in the coming year. It’s going to cost 250,000 Euros, so it’s a very expensive burger … but hopefully this will create enough enthusiasm and financial support to upscale and economise the processes, so that we can improve and start to think about a real manufacturing process,” said Post.
9 comments (Comments are now closed)
Excellent alternative for Meat Lovers - Clean and fair meat eaters and Religious people
I found if this idea is keep out of the big Food commercial Chains of Meat . It is a good and healthy alternative to avoid eating animals feed with corn ; will liberate the poor people to eat mc Dnlds and other meat-organs-bone hamburgers (like) products and will give the consumer to eat food free of fillers; fats; Poison; and bacterias. On top of that the religious people will be very happy not to kill the animals and pets.
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Posted by Mauricio Murillo
21 July 2011 | 04h45
Mushrooms are an excellent alternative to Meat
Mushrooms are an excellent alternative to Meat...as the other poster noted; one could take tons of mushrooms and make meat like patties which are nutritious too
I am not for stopping Cattle; although I am a vegetarian; Cattle have a right to live too; every coin has two sides...imo
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Posted by Anna
08 July 2011 | 13h14
Of greater efficiency..
Would be to develop plants that more realistically mimic the taste and texture of meat - some mushrooms already do this, but using a photosynthetic production process is more efficient. Growing plants to feed to animals which convert plant energy to animal is likely an order of magnitude less efficient.
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Posted by Steve Howe
07 July 2011 | 21h28
An idea whose time have come.
I love to eat meat but I feel guilty when I think about the moral/ethical issue regarding taking an animal's life for my own eating pleasure. But I would have no issue with eating meat that are grown from cells rather than from an animal.
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Posted by James
07 July 2011 | 04h28
hmmmm do these scientists know about nutrition?
I heard on the audio that the scientists grow the "meat" by applying or infusing or by some unnamed process, using oxygen and "nutrients". I was hoping the interviewer would have asked just what these "nutrients" are. Basically the "meat" will end up having just the nutrients provided. Hubs is right about how we need animals to make nutritional use of the grass for us, unless we could find a plant that would grow like grass or we find a way to process the grass to make it digestible. The second ides, like the idea of growing fake meat, are not palatable to me, as natural processes are manipulated. Manipulating natural processes can have unseen consequences. The GMO fiasco is a case in point. And as far as the methane, how about goats and sheep? Do they produce as much methane as cattle?
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Posted by natural foodist
06 July 2011 | 11h20
'Synthetic Meat
The prospect of laboratory-grown meat raises the spector of protest in a similar way that GM food has generated. I can see the merits of this substance where meat production has failed due to drought or similar cause: "Sausages for the starving Ethiopians", but sale elsewhere may meet resistance.
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Posted by Derek Batchelor
05 July 2011 | 22h30
someone doesn't know much about agronomy
I am not sure about the situation in the US, but there are millions of square kilometers over the planet Earth where only grass can grow. But we human beings are unable to digest grass. This is where cattle is helpful : cattle turns grass cellulosis into animal protein, and we can live on those animal proteins. Desertic or semi-desertic lands, mountains : many places over the world can just be used for human food production through ruminants. So, please, open your eyes to the rest of the world, where cattle might look unhelthy, even starving, but where they never see any hormones bottles, and where they have thouthands of acres each.
back to the lab meat : let's see in a couple dozen years ?
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Posted by Hubs
04 July 2011 | 21h02
Hmmm... someone doesn't know much about science!
Meat (whatever kind) is made up of cells. The health of the cells may be determined by the life of the animal, but with lab grown meat comes the potential to increase the health of the cells (to the quality of free-range, locally raised meat) without using the ENORMOUS amount of energy and space it would cost for everyone in the U.S. to eat meat from animals raised in this way.
I think it is hilarious that you mention that they need to roam... are you aware of the current state of the animal market right now? Animals are kept in cages barely large enough for them to turn around, fed growth hormones... by the time they are old enough to be killed for their meat they look sickly and disgusting. Perhaps you eat only local free-range meat, but there is not by a long shot enough space or energy for everyone to eat in this space. Not to mention the enormous amounts of methane that millions of cattle release into the atmosphere. Lab-grown meat will provide the alternative for everyone to eat healthily without causing our environment, energy crisis, and available land to suffer. Please educate yourself, Alfred!
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Posted by katherine
03 July 2011 | 04h34
Hmmmmm...?
Yikes!
Nice picture you are showing there...
Real meat comes from cattle which feeds on grass and corn... they need to roam around on the field, be phisically active, exposed to the environment, bad and good weather, my be allowed to choose muching on herbs and other differet grass/es.... roll in the mud, get dusty, have fight, and be a real "animal"...
- such as seen on the Argentine Pampas! - Now that is meat!!! - not out of the retort.
I recall similar attempts to produced "artificial meat" is not a new idea - back in the 60's there were such attempts (put of petroleum products!), combined with reaction meat flavours.... That never took off....
Hostory repeating itself?
Doesn't convince me....
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Posted by alfred
01 July 2011 | 13h50
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