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

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

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Post by Jeff_Brown » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #227

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 20th century may have been special. In a hundred years we went from riding horses to landing on the moon. If the 21st century is to advance on a similarly breathtaking scale we'll need some astounding changes -- immortality, say, or true AI.

About 27% of the world still works in agriculture, as of 2019 - the vast majority as subsistence farmers - down from 44% of the world as of 1990 [1]. That's over 200 million people that just began the transition from pre-industrial agriculture to a modern market based economy. Modern technology is so unevenly distributed that over two billion people are still fed without the benefit of industrialized farming. I think…

You're right. I was thinking about the technological frontier. In terms of improving the average or the floor, rather than the ceiling, we've got our work cut out.

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

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Post by Falling3 » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

eloff wrote: post #282

Falling3 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Veganism is neither a religion nor a diet; it's a philosophy that impact various areas of consumption and usage beyond just food. As a vegan, I'm thrilled about the prospect of this. This is the only realistic route to anything resembling the cessation of large scale animal farming.

Question though, would you personally eat it? Do you think other vegans might?

I know lots of other vegans would. I'm far more excited to be able to give my cats a cruelty free diet. I just hit 16 years and I'm honestly not sure that I'd want to go back to eating meat at this point - even ethically produced.

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

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Post by OJFord » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

armchairhacker wrote: post #245

OJFord wrote: post #203

I'm excited for these to be readily available and around normal meat pricing - but articles never seem to show any photos. I'm really curious how they actually 'grow' it, what sort of form it takes, and then what the final product texture is like or how versatile it is. For example, the '5k burgers' figure comes from dividing the mass produced by some nominal figure for a burger. But is it actually mince they're prod…

It looks like the lab-grown meat looks indistinguishable from real meat. They've even got salmon sashimi with the texture of real salmon. (source: captions in https://www.fooddive.com/news/cell-based-meat-plants-come-on... ) I doubt it tastes indistinguishable though, from hearing other reports of tasting lab-grown meat.

Oh wow, I hadn't heard of it being done with fish, that's great. Just earlier today I was looking at my (frankly ridiculous) dill crop and wondering what to use it with that isn't salmon.

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

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Post by edanm » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #288

detritus wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting - I thought that fat was the trickier element to replicate, which is a more important dimension in pork and beef. Now then, the interesting question for an Israeli-company - would producing and then consuming synthetic pork be Kosher?

I wasn't surprised to see that beef was left out initially. Even without the religious objection, they aren't likely to have much of a market for vat-beef locally because cow-beef isn't desired locally. But once they go more global, there's a really big market for vat-beef. And I would love to know of the religious implications of this as well... Both for cow and pig, for various religions and other beliefs, such as…

Why do you think that cow-beef isn't desired in Israel? We eat plenty of beef.

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

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Post by edanm » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

spywaregorilla wrote: post #269

trainsplanes wrote: post #73

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I see free range chicken breasts for way more than that. If they’re targeting the consumers who buy based on ethics, they’ve already reached a not-unreasonable price.

It's possible, but I think that is a very difficult market to compete in. I'd wager most ethically minded buyers are wealthy enough to prefer buying free range organic chicken breast than lab grown meat, if they're purchasing meat at all. The long term play for this is almost certainly at beating factory farms on price, which has an added benefit of ethical and environmental gains. If economies of scale exist, this i…

> I'd wager most ethically minded buyers are wealthy enough to prefer buying free range organic chicken breast than lab grown meat.

I would easily pay more for lab grown chicken. Partly because I believe it's even more ethical, partly because I really don't trust so-called "free range organic" chicken (I already buy it when I can, but I expect the difference is minuscule).

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

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Post by telotortium » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:31 PM UTC

distribot wrote: post #178

tomp wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to food, I use the following criteria: could I make it myself in my kitchen? (Some "minimal processsing" like fermentation and curing therefore fall under "natural".) I'm pretty sure the answer is "no" for most of the plant-based fake meat. It's also "no" for McDonald's burger so I'm not just hating on plants.

I understand this conversation is about Beyond Meat kinda stuff, but it's isn't no for the two oldest and most popular fake meats--tofu and seitan. And yet tofu especially gets beat up in terms of fake vs natural.

As an omnivore, I love seitan - it's pretty common in Chinese and Japanese cuisine. I wish more vegetarian places in the US would use it, but it seems that only tofu has crossed over, which is a shame, because tofu generally doesn't have the texture and bulk of meat, but rather of soft, non-meltable cheese, and is not even as filling as that.

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

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Post by edanm » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

t0mbstone wrote: post #253

This is kind of a weird question, but how exactly does anyone prove that this is actually lab grown meat and isn't just normal meat that has been turned into meat paste and then sold for twice as much as normal meat? I mean, obviously, they wouldn't do this at first. They would wait until everyone was complacent and used to eating lab grown meat before they started supplementing their production. As long as creating…

The economic reason for brands is exactly to develop trust.

But also (and quite possibly more importantly), there is a lot of government oversight and regulation when it comes to food.

And also also, people could sue for fraud.

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

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Post by shaunregenbaum » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC

deegles wrote: post #171

shaunregenbaum wrote: post #125

I worked in this lab! Would be glad to answer questions.

Is it just meat or also fat? How does the nutritional content compare to say beef liver or a regular steak?

The main IP in the lab is replicating the fat + other stuff in meat. It compares to average ground beef by design.

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

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Post by shaunregenbaum » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

Trufa wrote: post #138

shaunregenbaum wrote: post #125

I worked in this lab! Would be glad to answer questions.

Is it only burger style meat? Grinded? Or are they trying to replicate the shape and consistency of a steak too?

Future Meat is focused on ground meat/chicken products. There are other companies in Israel focused on more refined products, check out Aleph Farms. More refined products are wildly more expensive though as you can't easily grow it in vats.

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

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Post by shaunregenbaum » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 7:46 PM UTC

Mvhsz wrote: post #133

shaunregenbaum wrote: post #125

I worked in this lab! Would be glad to answer questions.

Have you tried it? How was it?

I haven't tried it personally (I worked in a different part of the lab), but I've been told that its pretty indistinguishable from ground chicken/beef.