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

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

#41
post #12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, or just cook in butter.

Well, that's animal fat. Which is his complaint that this will still require raising cows.

Lots of methane from all those cows that we will raise and look after.

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

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one here who probably wouldn't buy artificial meat? I'm not a massive meat eater, but when I go shopping, I tend to buy better quality stuff without caring too much for the price. I'd give it a try, but would probably still buy "the real deal". > Suddenly we have huge swathes of land that, perhaps naively, I hope can be reforested. Those plots would still be owned by farmers, and planting trees on them…

You'll probably change your mind. If/when synthmeat becomes both economical and palatable, it will rapidly become socially unacceptable to eat real meat.

I'm not sure about the social aspect of it, but I can see it becoming more of a "real meat for special occasions or if you're rich enough". Demand for real meat, especially for processed meat products, will drop.

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

#43

As a vegan, I feel the day fast approaching when I must choose whether I'll eat this "vegan" meat or not. Either way I'm rooting for them on behalf of the environment and all the animals caught up in our current industrial food system.

I'm vegan too. My reason for being vegan is entirely on the basis of sustainability. If lab meat is produced in a sustainable fashion then I'll be all for eating it.

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

#44

As a vegan, I feel the day fast approaching when I must choose whether I'll eat this "vegan" meat or not. Either way I'm rooting for them on behalf of the environment and all the animals caught up in our current industrial food system.

Economies of scale. I think the product will become financially viable faster if it has wide-spread vegan support.

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

#45
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If we can centralise the production of meat Sounds like a huge disease risk.

You should tour a factory farming operation. Lab grown meat could be as safe as vaccine production; both done in controlled, sterile environments. EDIT: Seriously though, don't do the tour if you ever want to eat meat again. Doubly so for walking a slaughterhouse floor. There are some things you cannot unsee.

I can't upvote this enough. If you're worried about disease, you do not want to see where your meat comes from. There's no way lab meat could ever come close to this scale of filth.

(not talking about $50/lb locally slaughtered meat of course)

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

#46
post #44

As a vegan, I feel the day fast approaching when I must choose whether I'll eat this "vegan" meat or not. Either way I'm rooting for them on behalf of the environment and all the animals caught up in our current industrial food system.

Economies of scale. I think the product will become financially viable faster if it has wide-spread vegan support.

One would only be on-board with that assuming they were on board with the whole of the product. So first you'd need to make the argument as to why a vegan should be behind this product, besides "more people can afford it if all vegans buy it."

Also, that only works if it has competition, otherwise, if it were that popular and there were no competition the producer would have good reason to raise the price knowing the market could bear it.

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

#47
post #22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's animal fat. Which is his complaint that this will still require raising cows.

Traditional butter is made by churning milk, so while a cow is still required, it doesn't need to be slaughtered to make the burger. I wonder if it would be possible to cook it in soy butter?

I know it's culinary heresy, but unless you're eating it raw (like spread on a piece of baguette) it doesn't matter much what kind of fat you cook with in most preparations. If you were to take 99% lean ground beef right now and soak it with a few spoons of olive oil or canola, it would probably be pretty rich and moist.

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

#48
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If we can centralise the production of meat Sounds like a huge disease risk.

You should tour a factory farming operation. Lab grown meat could be as safe as vaccine production; both done in controlled, sterile environments. EDIT: Seriously though, don't do the tour if you ever want to eat meat again. Doubly so for walking a slaughterhouse floor. There are some things you cannot unsee.

I don't doubt that the factory is going to be a grim sight. I was more thinking about the centralization aspect, which would cause massive damage if the lab covering an entire state or country was contaminated.

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

#49
post #26
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional butter is made by churning milk, so while a cow is still required, it doesn't need to be slaughtered to make the burger. I wonder if it would be possible to cook it in soy butter?

Given that soy butter is marketed as similar to peanut butter, and has about 1/3 the fat of butter, I'm gonna go with "probably not and what were you thinking?" (I mean, sure, it's possible to cook your lean beef in peanut butter, so fine, technically "yes it's possible")

Presumably referring to the soy and vegetable oil based vegan butter replacement products.

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

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one here who probably wouldn't buy artificial meat? I'm not a massive meat eater, but when I go shopping, I tend to buy better quality stuff without caring too much for the price. I'd give it a try, but would probably still buy "the real deal". > Suddenly we have huge swathes of land that, perhaps naively, I hope can be reforested. Those plots would still be owned by farmers, and planting trees on them…

You'll probably change your mind. If/when synthmeat becomes both economical and palatable, it will rapidly become socially unacceptable to eat real meat.

Just like it has become socially unacceptable for the wealthy avoid tax? Or to burn coal for energy? I'm not sure I believe that. Might be good for the planet, but it very much sounds like wishful thinking to me.

If there are two products, one being the original and the other being artificial, I assume there will always be a market for the original. It'll just lead to a price increase.

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