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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)

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's a larger benefit to planting trees, then it would make sense for the government to offer incentives to plant trees, so they could make money.

I imagine that would be a one time subsidy, not annually?

Depends, if the benefit is from having them remain there then an annual tax credit or similar seems reasonable. You probably don't want a situation where you get paid more for annual logging and replanting then maintaining a forest in place.

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

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, random numbers like this come from unit conversion. My guess is that it started at $100/kg. $100 per kg = $11.34 per 1/4 lb burger You get $11.36 per 1/4 lb if you use 2.2 lb = 1 kg, instead of the exact conversion.

I assumed 1/4 lb burger, just because it's the common burger size that provides the most favorable comparison. It's a bullshit comparison though. A burger is more than just a patty, and upscale burgers (which they are targeting with prices like that) rarely are just a 1/4 lb of meat. I initially thought the $11.34 price was pretty good, because I eat $10 burgers all the time, but a 1/3 or 1/2 pound burger made with t…

> a 1/3 or 1/2 pound burger made with this meat would cost about $50 in a restaurant.

More than that. A 1/2 burger would cost, using the 30% food cost rule of thumb for restaurant pricing, nearly $80 assuming that everything other than the patty had no food cost.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would compare it to how it became socially unacceptable to own slaves. The number of individuals who think it is unacceptable to treat animals as commodities, and use them for palate pleasure or convenience is rapidly increasing, and I believe it will hit critical mass in the coming decades; specially as alternatives become more accessible.

I'm looking for alternatives. If you can create something that reacts to heat like meat and provides the same or a similar flavor profile, and that contains similar macronutrient ratios, then I would jump ship.

As it is, whey doesn't have the right flavors and cookability, tofu doesn't have the same flavors and has a lot of carbohydrates, and mushrooms don't have any protein in them.

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

#64
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A factory is not going to produce a states worth of meat. Possibly a small city's worth, but Americans eat 1 billion pounds of meat per year an this stuff is going to take at least hours if not weeks to grow.

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

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed 1/4 lb burger, just because it's the common burger size that provides the most favorable comparison. It's a bullshit comparison though. A burger is more than just a patty, and upscale burgers (which they are targeting with prices like that) rarely are just a 1/4 lb of meat. I initially thought the $11.34 price was pretty good, because I eat $10 burgers all the time, but a 1/3 or 1/2 pound burger made with t…

> a 1/3 or 1/2 pound burger made with this meat would cost about $50 in a restaurant. More than that. A 1/2 burger would cost, using the 30% food cost rule of thumb for restaurant pricing, nearly $80 assuming that everything other than the patty had no food cost.

I didn't realize the rule of thumb was 30% for a restaurant. I've always worked in retail, where a 100% markup is always a good rule of thumb.

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

#66
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.

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…

Wouldn't that completely depend on the quality? Sure if it ends up being slimy crap then you'd avoid it, but what if they manage to engineer it so each cheap steak is Kobe-beef quality?

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

#68

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.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Totally disregarding the morality of eating meat, there are many examples throughout history of things that were previously considered morally acceptable that are now frowned upon or are outright banned. Your prediction seems like it could very easily come true.

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

#69
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")

Peanut butter isn't a butter though. It's just a spread with a confusing name. In dutch it's called "peanut cheese". Doesn't make it a cheese.

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

#70
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.

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…

But people who refuse to eat lab meat will eventually die off. I mean, there are still people buying newly harvested fur, but they seem to be few and far between. Real meat will probably carry a social stigma as soon as fake meat becomes just as good or nearly as good.
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