8/14 The New Lab Created Meat
Here is some food for thought.
A few days ago I heard a show on NPR’s Science Friday called Biting Into the first Invitro Meat, about the most recent lab created meat. You can access the interview through the above link to NPR. I was riveted to the program as I drove myself home from work. The new burger was created by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University of the Netherlands.
Professor Post’s creation was taste-tasted for the first time amidst a flurry of press. One of the hand-picked few that got to sink his teeth into the bio-beef was a part of the interview on NPR. They did say in the interview that the current burger could not be considered vegetarian because bovine cells were used in its creation. However, they did say that they were headed in the direction of creating an entirely vegan product. Still, I find the concept very interesting and I am encouraged to see people working so hard to address the environmental and ethical ramifications of our desire to raise and slaughter over 27 billion animals every year just for a meal.
I found this article about the new meat on Peta.org and thought I would share. Here is the article in its entirety:
Success! Taste-Testers Love First Bite of Lab-Grown Meat!
Written by Michelle Kretzer 08-05-2013
Today in London, for the first time, two people got to sink their teeth into a real beef hamburger that wasn’t grown inside a cow. Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands publicly unveiled his lab-grown burger at a high-profile taste-testing event that was streamed online. A chef prepared the cultured beef patty, and Post let a food writer and a food researcher do the honors.
“The surface of the meat was crunchy—surprisingly,” said food researcher Hanni Rutzler. “The taste itself was as juicy as meat can be, but different. It tastes like meat, not a meat-substitute like soya or whatever.”
Well, there are some pretty tasty soy—or whatever—burgers, but some people just “have to have” real meat. And that’s going to be OK one day, because cultured beef is meat. Post made his by placing stem cells taken from cows into a culture dish and feeding the cells with fetal calf serum to make them grow. He says that one sample of muscle cells taken from a live cow during a biopsy could create up to 20,000 tons of cultured beef.
Besides eliminating the need to slaughter billions of animals every year, growing meat in a laboratory would end clear-cutting of forests for livestock production, conserve vast amounts of water and energy, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions for meat production by 78 to 96 percent.
PETA has been investing in cultured meat research for the past six years to save animals. The debut of this lab-grown burger is the first important step toward realizing the dream of one day putting environmentally sound, humanely produced real meat into the hands and mouths of the people who insist upon eating animal flesh.
Thank you Michelle for the thought provoking article. The more we know, the more effective we will be at making informed and compassionate decisions as we move through our experiences. What do you think about lab created meat? Share in a comment with us.
Have a delicious day.
Animal stats from Peta.org
Tags: Invitro meat, lab created meat, lab grown meat, Mark Post, PETA, Professor Mark Post, vegan wannabe
