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Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

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Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#91

Post by ericdykstra »

Danihan wrote: post #4
jseliger wrote: post #3

Beyond Meat gets name-checked in the article, but I want to emphasize that their burgers are pretty good: https://jakeseliger.com/2017/08/23/beyond-meat-burgers-are-p... and in my view underappreciated right now. If you've not tried them yet, you ought to.

I love how highly, highly processed foods are suddenly A-OK to many people here once it's a fake meat product. Whatever happened to the concept of, "Eat real food?" Full Ingredient List: >Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Ribo…

It's a bunch of normally inedible ingredients made to taste edible with fake flavoring and MSG. The last thing I need in my diet is even more misdirection in flavor profile telling my body what nutrients I need.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#92

Post by ggreer »

mmisu wrote: post #85
ggreer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed "clean" referred to the fact that lab-grown tissue would have a much lower risk of disease. Animals have digestive tracts full of bacteria, and farms aren't exactly pristine. Every year in the US, meat-borne pathogens kill thousands and sicken millions.[1] 1. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/5/5/99-0502_article

> I assumed "clean" referred to the fact that lab-grown tissue would have a much lower risk of disease. Animals have digestive tracts full of bacteria, and farms aren't exactly pristine. Every year in the US, meat-borne pathogens kill thousands and sicken millions. OK, let's check the numbers. According to the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/attribution/attribution-... from 1998 - 2008 from the total of foodb…

A couple of points:

1. The percentages you cite aren’t useful on their own, as one also needs to know how often each kind of food is consumed. Only then would we know the relative risk of eating each kind of food.

2. Most food plants are grown outdoors (often near livestock) and many aren’t cooked before eating. Cultured meat is grown in sterile environments and is typically cooked. These differences mean that it will almost certainly have a lower disease risk than any natural food.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#93

Post by LMYahooTFY »

tstactplsignore wrote: post #69
Danihan wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how highly, highly processed foods are suddenly A-OK to many people here once it's a fake meat product. Whatever happened to the concept of, "Eat real food?" Full Ingredient List: >Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Ribo…

This is just one part pseudoscience, one part nonsequitor. There's zero accepted nutritional scientific evidence that plant protein cannot completely adequately replace meat sources. Yes, of course someone who literally just eats soy burgers will experience some nutrient deficiency, but so would someone who just ate real burgers (plus the extra cholesterol and fats!). Millions of people completely replace meat with p…

Are you not proposing someone disprove your negatives?

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#94

Post by ZenoArrow »

Danihan wrote: post #4
jseliger wrote: post #3

Beyond Meat gets name-checked in the article, but I want to emphasize that their burgers are pretty good: https://jakeseliger.com/2017/08/23/beyond-meat-burgers-are-p... and in my view underappreciated right now. If you've not tried them yet, you ought to.

I love how highly, highly processed foods are suddenly A-OK to many people here once it's a fake meat product. Whatever happened to the concept of, "Eat real food?" Full Ingredient List: >Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Ribo…

> " I shouldn't even have to post about "Textured Wheat Protein" but it's essentially another denatured protein, one that is completely doused in glyphosate right before harvest. That's the main ingredient of these "burgers.""

How are you certain about 'doused in glyphosate'?

It should be noted that making meat substitutes out of wheat protein is nothing new, and it's accessible to the home cook, not something that has to be done in a lab. If you don't believe me, look up recipes for homemade seitan.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#95

Post by Freak_NL »

tray5 wrote: post #83
mmisu wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it disingenous to call meat grown in a lab clean meat . Would you call Margarine clean butter ?

If the stats in the article are true, 96% less greenhouse emissions, 45% less energy, 99% less land use and 96% less water used in the production of the lab meat, I think it makes perfect sense to call it clean meat. Plus it doesn't involve the death of an animal, which is pretty "clean" I guess.

Also, calling it green meat might not evoke the desired association.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#96

Post by Freak_NL »

pulverizer wrote: post #77
dasil003 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's foolish to assume that some novel and highly processed food item is going to be safer than something which we've been eating for thousands of generations. Basing the conclusion of safety based on a piecemeal analysis of the components hand-waves away the entire complexity of digestion and metabolization.

Just because human race survived thousands of years eating certain food does not mean that food is safe in today's standard.

Especially considering the fact that we will live up to three times as long as the average hunter-gatherer. Time matters when considering carcinogens and other long-term effects. National and international bodies providing food guidelines tend to advocate a reduction in red meat, sausage, etc. for good reasons.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#97

Post by erikpukinskis »

grizzles wrote: post #10

Lab grown meat is the industry I'd pick if I had to pick where the next rags to world's richest person will come from. Can it be scaled & beat conventional slaughter economically? I'm betting that it can. And it will disrupt a 100B+ annual industry.

> Can it be scaled & beat conventional slaughter economically? I'm betting that it can.

I'm really skeptical of this. Feels like a "multiple PhDs later..." kind of problem. Is there are a reason why you think the research won't hit any roadblocks? And even if it succeeds, there could be insurmountable marketing issues.

In the meantime, it's bad for vegetarianism. Meat eaters saying "why bother changing my diet, when lab grown meat will be here soon?"

We need to eat more plants. We need to travel fewer miles. We need to dump less potable water into the sea. We need to throw away less packaging and stuff. We can't always wait for the perfect 1:1 replacement eco-technology. We also need to figure out how to change our culture.

People all over the world learned how to survive just fine without without eating a half pound of flesh per day. Why are we clinging to these practices?

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#98

Post by ubernetes »

rglover wrote: post #32
jseliger wrote: post #3

Beyond Meat gets name-checked in the article, but I want to emphasize that their burgers are pretty good: https://jakeseliger.com/2017/08/23/beyond-meat-burgers-are-p... and in my view underappreciated right now. If you've not tried them yet, you ought to.

Veggie burgers? Word. Lab-grown meat? Hell no.

Thanks for your substantive comment.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#99

Post by nkoren »

fish_fan wrote: post #67
emmp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? As long as its vegan margarine. Its clean of at least a subset of ethical concerns that many foods are not. Clean is a very overloaded word though so I certainly see where you're coming from, but it works just fine for me.

Well, butter is a well-defined substance; there's a reason why "I can't believe it's not butter" isn't called "better butter". Furthermore margarine is associated with health risks that butter is not; clean is just disingenuous.

Fair enough, but margarine is not a good analogy to in-vitro meat. It's a substance that has very little molecular resemblance to butter. In-vitro meat, however, is meat. It's not a different substance -- it's just produced in a different way.

Re: Billionaires and big ag are joining venture investors to fund lab-grown meat

#100

Post by ForHackernews »

aswanson wrote: post #55
edison85 wrote: post #41

This, crispr, and self driving cars are my favorite up and coming innovations that just seem mind boggling and that will make a profound impact in our lives. I think it is realistic to see widespread use of all 3 in the next decade. The social media, apps, cloud, big data, and phone innovations have been neat but I'm looking forward to disruptions in non tech arenas. Space, electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars, so ma…

It's telling that space, electricity generation, crispr, self-driving cars, and this are thought of as 'non tech', but messaging apps and phones are.

It's because none of those things are actually worth big bucks (yet). All the money is in ads (and the various baits constructed around those ads).

If and when the things you listed become wildly profitable, they'll become relevant for discussions about "careers in tech".

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