Live data from Hacker News

Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

bbc.com

11–20 of 117 posts

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#11
post #2

The ethical argument for the adoption of artificial beef is always brought out during these stories. But they forget to mention that the lab grown meat only contains lean meat cells and in order to make it taste good they need to add animal fat. As in, fat from farmed and slaughtered animals.

do you think there will be a way to replace actual animal fat over time with another source? Is it cost holding it back or is it scientifically infeasible?

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#13
post #9

Ethical considerations won't take this far. Need it to become cheaper than real meat the day that happens it will take off on its own. Meat or cattle raising plays a big role in the worlds methane production decreasing that would be huge achievement as with more people getting out of poverty every year meat production and consumption is increasing.

I could see another angle in the meantime, which is exotic lab grown meats. I'd be interested in trying bald eagle meat or polar bear or any number of animal meats where it's either illegal or impractical to culture full animals.

Presumably you can also make meats that scale disproportionately with the size of the animal, like sparrow burger or lobster steak.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#14
post #3
post #2

The ethical argument for the adoption of artificial beef is always brought out during these stories. But they forget to mention that the lab grown meat only contains lean meat cells and in order to make it taste good they need to add animal fat. As in, fat from farmed and slaughtered animals.

Shouldn't creating artificial fat be easier than creating artificial meat? (I confess I have the impression that it would be easier based on a mere hunch... fat just seems less "complicated")

With zero knowledge on the subject my guess would be that they've focused on the protein structure and not the fat structures in their efforts. I suspect there are a lot of similarly shaped fat structures that taste differently which makes it seem like a similar but different problem.

In short, my guess would be that they need to focus on that after they solve this problem. The value of the meat is probably higher than that of the fat though so the ordering makes sense.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#15
post #13
post #9

Ethical considerations won't take this far. Need it to become cheaper than real meat the day that happens it will take off on its own. Meat or cattle raising plays a big role in the worlds methane production decreasing that would be huge achievement as with more people getting out of poverty every year meat production and consumption is increasing.

I could see another angle in the meantime, which is exotic lab grown meats. I'd be interested in trying bald eagle meat or polar bear or any number of animal meats where it's either illegal or impractical to culture full animals. Presumably you can also make meats that scale disproportionately with the size of the animal, like sparrow burger or lobster steak.

Yes, or human.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#16
post #2

The ethical argument for the adoption of artificial beef is always brought out during these stories. But they forget to mention that the lab grown meat only contains lean meat cells and in order to make it taste good they need to add animal fat. As in, fat from farmed and slaughtered animals.

Human fat. Just build the meat lab next to a liposuction clinic. Problem solved.

In fact, if you build a burger joint there as well, you've got a perfect Fat Cycle. People can go to the clinic to get their flab hoovered off, then head into the restaurant and eat it all back in burger form.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#17
post #8

I am really really excited about lab grown meat making it into the mass market and ultimately becoming cheaper than traditional meat. The environmental benefits will be insane; how much of the earth is currently devoted to either raising animals or growing feed to feed animals? If we can centralise the production of meat, suddenly we have huge swathes of land that, perhaps naively, I hope can be reforested.

>If we can centralise the production of meat

Sounds like a huge disease risk.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#18
post #2

The ethical argument for the adoption of artificial beef is always brought out during these stories. But they forget to mention that the lab grown meat only contains lean meat cells and in order to make it taste good they need to add animal fat. As in, fat from farmed and slaughtered animals.

Human fat. Just build the meat lab next to a liposuction clinic. Problem solved. In fact, if you build a burger joint there as well, you've got a perfect Fat Cycle. People can go to the clinic to get their flab hoovered off, then head into the restaurant and eat it all back in burger form.

Thanks Tyler.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#19
post #8

I am really really excited about lab grown meat making it into the mass market and ultimately becoming cheaper than traditional meat. The environmental benefits will be insane; how much of the earth is currently devoted to either raising animals or growing feed to feed animals? If we can centralise the production of meat, suddenly we have huge swathes of land that, perhaps naively, I hope can be reforested.

> how much of the earth is currently devoted to either raising animals or growing feed to feed animals

Probably just as much of the Earth as will be needed to run this operation. Power, plant mass, and people aren't free resources.

Re: Team wants to sell lab grown meat in five years (2015)

#20
post #2

The ethical argument for the adoption of artificial beef is always brought out during these stories. But they forget to mention that the lab grown meat only contains lean meat cells and in order to make it taste good they need to add animal fat. As in, fat from farmed and slaughtered animals.

Human fat. Just build the meat lab next to a liposuction clinic. Problem solved. In fact, if you build a burger joint there as well, you've got a perfect Fat Cycle. People can go to the clinic to get their flab hoovered off, then head into the restaurant and eat it all back in burger form.

At least its fat neutral
Post reply on HN