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World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

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Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#31

Post by paraschopra »

I'm surprised at the claim that it does 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions.

The recent research suggests that lab-grown meat may not be better than conventional meat (at least for beef) because a part of cows emissions are methane related that dissipates fast while majority of emissions for lab grown meat is CO2 that stays in the atmosphere for long.

From https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2019.0000...

>We conclude that cultured meat is not prima facie climatically superior to cattle; its relative impact instead depends on the availability of decarbonized energy generation and the specific production systems that are realized.

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#32

Post by XorNot »

EspadaV9 wrote: post #23
spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

The price seems to be ~$3.90 to produce chicken breast. Given that I regularly find chicken breast in a store for $1.99, I'll assume that's still ~3x as costly as just farm raising chickens. It will be interesting if subsidies can change this though. The negative externalities of raising animals must be huge. The jobs tied up in these industries are enormous as well though.

3x the price isn't too bad. Plant based "meat" is usually a bit more expensive than regular meat, and for some people paying 3x to get "real" meat without the need to kill an animal will be a worthwhile trade. Add in the environmental benefits too and it could give some people some peace of mind.

3x not to torture chickens for their short lifespan in horrific conditions is worth it even if you're not a moral vegan. The poultry industry is horrendous, and dominated by demands of corporate boards rather then farmers to boot.

I already try to buy free range, but the grim reality is that label can't possibly account for the amount of production it supposedly represents. Taking chickens with nervous systems out of the entire process is preferable.

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#33

Post by ceejayoz »

hcknwscommenter wrote: post #29
ethanbond wrote: post #2

> Future Meat Technologies says this facility requires 96-percent less freshwater than livestock production, as well as using 99-percent less land and producing 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions. Even accounting for PR hyperbole, it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do. This is a national security issue. We can choose to curse our y…

It is of course impossible to verify either way, but I am very sure these statistics of 96% savings in freshwater are total nonsense. Anyone who has ever cultured cells on any scale can attest to the amount of water needed at any scale in terms of washing, rinsing, diluting, sterilizing, feeding, etc. Moreover, we have seen time and time again, the reporting of extremely high numbers for water usage in beef and milk…

> Anyone who has ever cultured cells on any scale can attest to the amount of water needed at any scale in terms of washing, rinsing, diluting, sterilizing, feeding, etc.

Given that this is all happening in a lab, is collecting and filtering for reuse an option?

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#34

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

The price seems to be ~$3.90 to produce chicken breast. Given that I regularly find chicken breast in a store for $1.99, I'll assume that's still ~3x as costly as just farm raising chickens. It will be interesting if subsidies can change this though. The negative externalities of raising animals must be huge. The jobs tied up in these industries are enormous as well though.

That makes it cheaper than many of the vegan substitutes I've seen. It means that even without subsidies, this is economically viable, not in the future but right now (unlike the $20000 burgers that I've seen mentioned a few years ago).

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#35

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

ethanbond wrote: post #2

> Future Meat Technologies says this facility requires 96-percent less freshwater than livestock production, as well as using 99-percent less land and producing 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions. Even accounting for PR hyperbole, it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do. This is a national security issue. We can choose to curse our y…

> We can choose to curse our younger generations with a warped sense of ickiness or masculinity, or we can choose protein security indefinitely into the future.

A false dichotomy if I ever saw one.

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#36

Post by bttrfl »

ethanbond wrote: post #2

> Future Meat Technologies says this facility requires 96-percent less freshwater than livestock production, as well as using 99-percent less land and producing 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions. Even accounting for PR hyperbole, it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do. This is a national security issue. We can choose to curse our y…

Every time I read stats like this I wonder what are the externalities the PR team decided to omit. One day you hear that farmed fish are eco, the next day you find out that gigantic trawlers are depleting Antarctic oceans for feed.

I tried to google the possible environmental downsides of lab-meat (taste/health aside), but couldn't find anything. Any suggestions?

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#37

Post by tomp »

ethanbond wrote: post #2

> Future Meat Technologies says this facility requires 96-percent less freshwater than livestock production, as well as using 99-percent less land and producing 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions. Even accounting for PR hyperbole, it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do. This is a national security issue. We can choose to curse our y…

> with a warped sense of ickiness or masculinity, or we can choose protein security indefinitely into the future

I think you're confusing a few things.

I'm very pro lab-grown meat, and I don't see why it would be either "icky" (if anything, it could be much more "pure", able to grow in controlled conditions without any pesticides, hormones or antibiotics) nor less "masculine" (a steak is a steak is a steak).

I'm very much against plant-based "fake" meat, because they're usually far from natural (tons of chemicals) and full of propaganda ("red meat is unhealthy" but conveniently conflating pure red meat with highly-processed stuff like sausages and salami, or "red meat is unsustainable" while we keep burning coal and importing plastics from China... don't get me wrong, I strongly support carbon tax, but want to be able to what to consume (drive car vs. eat steak) myself).

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#38

Post by actuator »

ethanbond wrote: post #2

> Future Meat Technologies says this facility requires 96-percent less freshwater than livestock production, as well as using 99-percent less land and producing 80-percent fewer greenhouse emissions. Even accounting for PR hyperbole, it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do. This is a national security issue. We can choose to curse our y…

> it is so apparent at this point that any country who chooses not to board this train will be at the mercy of those who do

This is hardly the only solution though. We can also shift to just plant based diets from crops which are not water intensive. Vegetarianism has been present in many parts of the world from a long time and those parts have also done fine with surviving.

We have a plethora of recipes as well which we can import from those parts of the world and add it with other highly nutritious vegan recipes. At least I have been far more impressed with eating those cuisines than eating fake meat as such.

Re: World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day

#39

Post by DoingIsLearning »

kazen44 wrote: post #8
aurora72 wrote: post #3

A key benefit of cultured meat is its minimized impact on the environment => And the key danger is its maximized impact on the body.

how so? as far as i am aware, this is actual meat, compared to a substitute.

This is a great concept and likely to be the only way to continue to eat meat in a long-term future.

However, applying a cautionary principle, I would really prefer to find a detailed description of what ingredients are these meat cultures being supplied with during growth.

For example, cow meat is theoretically healthy but the previous outbreak of BSE started with cow feed that included other cow parts.

In the same way sea fish is theoretically healthy, however aquaculture fish feed includes a large portion of fishmeal which is again grinded dead fish guts and bones. The nutrional value of this (lower omega fatty acids content?) is to me not clear and the impact of this is perhaps insuficiently studied (Happy to read any sources others may suggest).

I am not arguing that a lab grown muscle cell is different from a muscle cell appended to a chicken. But I would very much like to see more detail on the supply chain of how that muscle cell is provided with nutrients.

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