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Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

wsj.com

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Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#91

Post by pm90 »

projectorlochsa wrote: post #68
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your litmus test for "viable" is what currently makes you the happiest you'll be blocked off from not only helping the world but likely helping yourself too. I find that terribly narrow minded. It's not about "happiest". I've tried almost all of those before, several of them in multiple ways. I don't like the taste nor texture. So since I don't like the taste of what you like I am thusly being selfish and blocke…

Taste is acquired, it is not in your genes. Of course you will find foods and tastes that were present through your whole life better than new textures and tastes. It's normal. Eventually one either gets used and enjoys the new foods or makes tasty meals in combination. For me, getting drunk and then eating the disgusting thing in the morning made me love it. It's undescribable how delicious things are when one is de…

So that's exactly the point. One might rationally understand the flaws with meat, but taste, however it may be acquired, is difficult to change. I absolutely love meat but not exclusively. I also eat a lot of pinto and black beans and cook chick peas. However, none of the current options come close to offering the taste, texture and variety that comes with meat. And there are so many varieties! Meat from pigs, cows, goat, sheep/lamb, chicken, duck, turkey... they all have a unique taste. They change flavor and texture considerably depending on cooking style. You can cook them in different ways...essentially, meat offers much variety not offered currently by vegetarian substitutes.

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#92

Post by dovdovdov »

marricks wrote: post #34
readams wrote: post #27

Though I'm a meat eater, I have a strong suspicion that the arrival of high-quality meat alternatives will cause a societal shift away from eating meat to the point where it would become rare. As it is, giving up meat is a huge decline in quality of life and its easy to rationalize meat consumption. It needs to be actually comparable in quality and the price needs to come way down though first. It's easy to imagine a…

I gave up animal products and found a pretty good increase in quality of life. It happened when other changes were occuring in my life, but I lost weight, hung out with other vegans, felt better overall. It can really depend on when you live, but being vegan in most US metropolitan areas is pretty easy these days. As for lab meats, they're great and I'm generally for them, but acting like we don't have viable other s…

> hung out with other vegans

Thanks for also writing about the downsides! :)

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#93

Post by tomcam »

sethbannon wrote: post #17
netinstructions wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you speak to the cost? The WSJ article says it currently costs $9,000 per pound to produce the "clean meat". Does that mean you ate something like a $900 chicken? (Assuming you had a small sample)

The costs are still too high for commercial viability but they're dropping rapidly. In 2013, the first cultured burger cost $330,000 to make. Just under a year ago, Memphis Meats was at $18,000/lb of clean beef produced. Now they're at $9,000/lb. This is before any sort of efficiencies from scale, and before many steps of the process have been anywhere near fully optimized. They expect their costs to reach 2 cents/g…

> Just under a year ago, Memphis Meats was at $18,000/lb of clean beef produced. Now they're at $9,000/lb.

That's a relief, because anything over $9,200/lb. causes me to consider having chicken one extra day a week.

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#94

Post by kriro »

sethbannon wrote: post #3

After not eating meat for over 20 years due to the environmental and ethical concerns over how it's conventionally been made, I was lucky enough to be at the tasting described in the WSJ article. I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/@sethbannon/i-just-ate-meat-for-the-first...

Why not simply buy lovingly raised animals (obviously more expensive) instead of quitting on meat. That way you'd signal to the market that there's more demand for that kind of meat. I mean if everyone was a vegetarian/vegan some pretty cool animals would probably be extinct soon.

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#96

Post by henrikschroder »

throwaway243546 wrote: post #84
imaginenore wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you stop doing what you like/love, it's a huge decline in quality of life.

This argument only works if you assume that people who go vegan enjoys food less than they did before they went vegan. The reality is that most vegans report enjoying food much more. The reason for that is that they are forced to experiment with different flavors and get more creative, which expands their culinary horizons.

Stockholm Syndrome is also a viable explanation.

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#97

Post by henrikschroder »

shostack wrote: post #89
digikata wrote: post #40

So why are all the engineered meat startups targeting pretty common meats that are fairly low cost? Why not a something like tuna which is endangered and can sell at a really high cost per pound. Take the Tesla strategy and build for a high-end exotic market that can sustain a high-margin first then get into position for the wider, lower margin market.

I agree, screw common meat. Let's get interesting and take the bottom out of things like poaching by doing rare game meats, or creating entirely new engineered meats that are tastier and healthier than nature. I do worry though on the impact this will ultimately have on the farming industry and jobs. It is a slightly subtler form of job automation.

Why worry? The meat industry is completely disgusting, and raising animals for slaughter is morally bad. The sooner we can disrupt this industry and stop killing animals, the better. I have zero remorse for the farmers that will be impacted.

I just had a fantastic dinner with a perfectly fried beef tenderloin steak. It was delicious. If this could be made cheaper, faster, better, and without having to kill a cow every time, that's an absolute win for everyone.

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#98

Post by apendleton »

kriro wrote: post #94
sethbannon wrote: post #3

After not eating meat for over 20 years due to the environmental and ethical concerns over how it's conventionally been made, I was lucky enough to be at the tasting described in the WSJ article. I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/@sethbannon/i-just-ate-meat-for-the-first...

Why not simply buy lovingly raised animals (obviously more expensive) instead of quitting on meat. That way you'd signal to the market that there's more demand for that kind of meat. I mean if everyone was a vegetarian/vegan some pretty cool animals would probably be extinct soon.

OP mentioned ethical and environmental concerns. "lovingly raised meat" might address the former if your ethical concerns are about specific livestock conditions, but not if you think raising animals for human consumption is unethical, period. And it does nothing whatsoever to address the environmental concerns, which are considerable, and are a primary motivator for many people who reduce or eliminate meat (judging from the medium post, OP included).

Re: Startup Serves Up Chicken Produced From Cells in Lab

#99

Post by jlebrech »

kriro wrote: post #94
sethbannon wrote: post #3

After not eating meat for over 20 years due to the environmental and ethical concerns over how it's conventionally been made, I was lucky enough to be at the tasting described in the WSJ article. I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/@sethbannon/i-just-ate-meat-for-the-first...

Why not simply buy lovingly raised animals (obviously more expensive) instead of quitting on meat. That way you'd signal to the market that there's more demand for that kind of meat. I mean if everyone was a vegetarian/vegan some pretty cool animals would probably be extinct soon.

"lovingly raised" would mean you're buying the animal still alive?
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