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Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, considering one has well understood risks and has been practiced for thousands of years, while the other approach is brand new, I think it's reasonable. It can also be a selling point for lab-grown meat, the fact that it is safer and free of bacteria.

Our modern way of raising animals for slaughter is just that - modern. Not thousands of years. We have not been pumping steroids into the meat we eat for thousands of years. We give our food substances that fatten them up as quickly as possible, and we're surprised we're getting fat.

We give our food water, but it doesn't quench our thirst. We give our food grass, but it doesn't tear up our teeth. Our food has poop in it, but doesn't taste of poop. Is there any evidence that steroids which are digested by a cow linger in its body as an active substance for years, in a large enough quantity to have a steroid effect after going through another creature's digestive system?

Isn't obesity rather well explained by cheap easily available food, carb heavy diet and increasingly sedentary lifestyle?

Otherwise, cows grow to much bigger than people, much quicker than people do. Why don't their natural growth hormones affect us in the same way?

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#92

It will be animal cells differentiated into muscle tissues on collagen scaffolds initially. The technology comes from attempts to grow functional organs (ie, liver) that are biocompatible in the body serum proper. If there aren't health effects from transplantation within the animal type you can probably eat the animal tissues just fine. It's the same thing. It's meat. It's just without the animal suffering. And hope…

For context, the life of an average herbivore in the wild consists of living with no shelter in harsh weather while having to fear every sound. And it typically ends by being ripped to pieces by a predator and eaten alive while the brain still has some residual oxygen and awareness. The typical farmed animal experience where you are sheltered, vaccinated against common illnesses, provided food and slaughtered after b…

An animal does not choose to live a wild or farm life. I assume that fewer farmed animals does not increase the number of wild animals.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#93
post #8

Yeah I’m going to let other folks experiment with that for 10 or so years and see where it goes. I’m sure the meat is fine, it’s just a matter of not contaminating it during the process that I’m concerned about. The FDA is really poor at enforcing the health and safety aspects of manufacturing and processing. They simply don’t have enough inspectors and the inspectors don’t fine big offenders enough

If you put cattle on farmland, and utilize regenerative agriculture techniques, it costs a bit more, because yields aren't artificially boosted while destroying the topsoil. In return you actually capture carbon into the grasses from the atmosphere. That would normally just rot, but the herbivores digest it and make it bioavailable for the fungi and bacteria in the soil, where the carbon accumulates.

The herbivores are key component of sustainable agriculture, you can't do it without them. Lab grown meat is an interesting, energy intensive step in the wrong direction.

I think we can all agree that there are problems with factory farming, and grain finishing livestock.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#94
post #60
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

97%[0] of cows are finished on feedlots, i.e. get a substantial amount of calories from corn and other feed. Other animals like pigs are exclusively fed feed. Animal factory farming already consumes a terrifying amount of resources, using up a lot of the plant agriculture that we do. [0] https://littlecreekmontana.shop/blogs/ranch-blog/food-for-th...

The finishing process changes the tase quite a bit. Some folks like the grain taste some like it grassy.

Blind taste-testing overwhelmingly favors feedlot-finished beef.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#95

It will be animal cells differentiated into muscle tissues on collagen scaffolds initially. The technology comes from attempts to grow functional organs (ie, liver) that are biocompatible in the body serum proper. If there aren't health effects from transplantation within the animal type you can probably eat the animal tissues just fine. It's the same thing. It's meat. It's just without the animal suffering. And hope…

"And hopefully it'll eventually be cheaper than growing animals too."

Just as simply planting a tree and letting the sun provide the energy for it's growth will always beat those "synthetic trees" people like to hype from time to time, I can expect to never see a synthetic process that is more cost effective to create "meat" than simply letting nature do it's thing. Down here in Brazil you basically give the animals it's vaccines and let them graze for a few years, you can't beat that. And btw, I'll rather starve than eat anything syntesized that can be made, cheaper and for sure tastier, naturally.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine thinking modern factory farming is anything as simple as “putting a cow in a field”.

Imagine thinking modern factory farming is the only way to go about things. It really can be as simple as putting a cow in a field with grass and water. My family has been doing it for 150 years.

imagine thinking this is possible at the scale required to satiate humanities appetite for meat.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or consuming terrifying amounts of energy and resources, when you can put a cow in a field until it's big enough to eat.

Imagine thinking modern factory farming is anything as simple as “putting a cow in a field”.

And yet that's where all the meat I eat comes from, and indeed most of the meat eaten in this country.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's meat, but also without the immune system so...good luck.

If I understood your comment correctly (I'm sorry if I didn't) - isn't it grown in essentially sterile conditions, so lack of immune system isn't an issue as I must imagine it shouldn't be able to communicate any transmissible diseases?

That’s correct. The challenge is that ensuring purity of ingredients during production is tricky at scale. A small mistake could ruin a large batch of food, lowering total yields and raising costs.

Ideally the production process would include something analogous to the immune system to make it more robust. For certain contaminants simple outcompetition by probiotics might suffice.

Re: Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

#100
post #8

Yeah I’m going to let other folks experiment with that for 10 or so years and see where it goes. I’m sure the meat is fine, it’s just a matter of not contaminating it during the process that I’m concerned about. The FDA is really poor at enforcing the health and safety aspects of manufacturing and processing. They simply don’t have enough inspectors and the inspectors don’t fine big offenders enough

I 'm pretty sure we already eat far more shady stuff than industrially grown cells.
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