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Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

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151–160 of 205 posts

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#151

To those wondering why lab-grown meat instead of going vegan: People are driven by incentives. People like meat, so instead of asking them to stop eating meat, which most won't do, make it a better option that fits with whatever the asker's goals are. In this case, you'd want people to care about animals or decrease environmental effects, so the way to do that while also considering people's incentives of loving meat…

It’s even simpler than that. There are some people who simply don’t function as well when they don’t eat meat. “But I’m vegan and I do just fine, in fact it I feel better then when I was eating meat”. I don’t doubt you, but I also don’t doubt the ex-vegans who tried and tried, but just felt awful and tired until they reintroduced meat. Different people have different metabolisms, and some people just can’t properly d…

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893534/

This review debunks the "bioavailability" and "quality" claims quite easily.

"bioavailability" (pdcaas diaas) is a contrived measure of protein source completeness made up to characterize protein issues of starving humans. It was also calibrated on rats and pigs, not humans. The "complete protein" misinformation is everywhere. Even on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein (edit: now I see that someone recently changed the statement to "adequate proportion" while previously it was just referencing that it contains all 9 essential amino acids).

All plants contain all essential amino acids, including green grass. Completeness in case of no starvation does not mean a thing. If you are eating 3000kcal of wheat every day, protein is no longer a worry, despite wheat having a 25% made-up bioavailability measure that was deduced by checking what happens to nitrogen in a live pig.

The protein "concentration" is just not true. Chicken breast does not have 90g of protein in 100g of chicken breast. 35g of protein in 100g of raw soybean. You will have to find a really rare steak of 100g to top that.

> Many ex-vegans have been consistently anemic, even while taking iron supplements, until they re-introduced meat.

This is not at all the conclusion of peer reviewed articles. Increased occurrence of nutrient deficiencies in vegan populations does not exist. Some people get deficiencies on any diet, and this is also the case for diets that have low-calorie high-volume foods like plants. Nothing special about that. People need to eat more volume but rarely do so. Similarly, they need to eat more calories. Talking about micronutrients in a world with no starvation is unnecessary. If you're eating a variety of plants, enough calories, it is certain you are consuming all of the necessary nutrients and protein. If you want to do powerlifting, marathon running, you will need to adjust your diet, whatever diet it is.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#154
post #103

> After researching the impact the livestock industry has on our planet, I knew I wanted to get involved to stop it. I applaud the desire to help humanity eat healthier and saner amounts of meat, but... I remain unconvinced that creating relatively resource-intensive fake meats is better than using highly efficient non-animal meat[0]. Most people won't eat either one unless they have no choice, but if it comes to tha…

That is a valid claim. The artificial bioreactors in question are rarely as efficient as the body of an animal. So these "reduction" claims come from thinking about how much animal meat production is reduced by meeting the demand with fake meat, not taking the energy demands of fake meat production into account at all.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#155
As I understand it your technology is in part about providing a scaffolding that enables normal animal cells to grow. But there's a question that I genuinely think is important, but risk sounding like a troll. The qualities of a successful cancerous cell, to grow without restraint, unimpeded by the density of other cells or whether the cell is attached to a surface, will probably be even more successful in a bio-reactor than they would be in an organism where unconstrained growth will undermine the health of the the animal and the supply of energy and nutrients to the cell. This leads me to wonder whether cells with cancer like qualities - deranged karyotypes and unregulated cell division will become common in meat cell cultures. Does this seem reasonable? Is it a health issue, or do we perhaps not know yet? It's certainly a bit creepy.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#156
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good Food Institute is estimating that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low 10% in the next 8 years seems very impressive to me. Do you have a link to the report? I searched but their State of the Industry report has a question mark instead of a date https://gfi.org/resource/cultivated-meat-eggs-and-dairy-stat...

10% of the global meat market is around 30 million metric tons per year. What are we currently at?

Currently the only places in the world where the general public can taste cultivated meat products are one restaurant in Singapore and one restaurant in Israel. So very little amounts at this point :)

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#157
post #102

I am very excited about the prospect of cultivated meat. It just makes so much more ethical, environmental and eventually economic sense. This innovation seems inevitable, but someone still has to figure out all the details. Sounds like you have some great insights. I am rooting for you!

Thank you!

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#158

Great concept! Can you make it into production? The info I've found shows only 1 venture funding round for $125k USD.

We are mainly building technology (hardware and consumables) for the cultivated meat industry as B2B model. Since we are not a vertical cultivated meat company we aim to start production within the next year.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#160

To those wondering why lab-grown meat instead of going vegan: People are driven by incentives. People like meat, so instead of asking them to stop eating meat, which most won't do, make it a better option that fits with whatever the asker's goals are. In this case, you'd want people to care about animals or decrease environmental effects, so the way to do that while also considering people's incentives of loving meat…

It’s even simpler than that. There are some people who simply don’t function as well when they don’t eat meat. “But I’m vegan and I do just fine, in fact it I feel better then when I was eating meat”. I don’t doubt you, but I also don’t doubt the ex-vegans who tried and tried, but just felt awful and tired until they reintroduced meat. Different people have different metabolisms, and some people just can’t properly d…

>Meat has a much higher concentration of protein and iron than vegan food.

Exactly this. The whole point is the Protein:Fat+Carb ratio and vegan options just don't come close. My diet has me eating ~150 grams of protein a day. If I were vegan, I'd be consuming an insane amount of carbs and/or fat along with that protein. My high protein diet combined with weight lifting is the only thing that keeps the dad bod at bay.

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