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Lab-Grown Meat Is Safe to Eat, FDA Says

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

#151

Post by cogman10 »

runarberg wrote: post #112
superkuh wrote: post #33

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…

> It's meat. It's just without the animal suffering Are you sure about the no suffering part. Currently this meat is grown using a growth medium most often extracted from a pregnant mare using a technique called bloodletting which is often extremely painful for the animal. EDIT: I think I’m actually wrong about the pregnant mare. Animal suffering through bloodletting from pregnant mares was a recent scandal where I’m…

> technique called bloodletting

The technique is called a "biopsy" and while it does hurt, the animals recover pretty quickly from it. Branding is far more painful.

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

#152

Post by ncallaway »

prometheus76 wrote: post #67
ncallaway wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(This isn’t a sarcastic or Socratic question, just genuine curiosity) Is there some aspect of the immune system that remains active and providing protection to an animal, or parts of an animal after it’s slaughtered?

Not being exposed to air, for one. That's why it's safe to eat a rare steak (where the surfaces exposed to air are cooked to kill bacteria) and why it's not safe to eat rare hamburger (where all the meat has been exposed to air through grinding the meat).

Sure, but this is chicken, which is already notably porous, which is why it’s generally considered unsafe to eat rare chicken, even if it’s been well cooked on the outside.

At least for that aspect, I’d think the protection is less relevant. I would be very curious how that’s handled with other meats, like lab grown beef. I’d be more hesitant about lab grown beef, if the cooking instructions prevented cooking it rare.

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

#153

Post by ebiester »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #121
matrix_overload wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>but hardly encompasses more suffering. I think that's hard to say. But I also think "the alternative" to farmed life is somewhat ignored by vegans/peta activists. On the one hand, as you say, death is more painful by the claws/teeth of a predator; that is certain. But life itself with little shelter (but usualy some) is the natural state of afairs for most mammals. To say that that is suffering is to say that life i…

The alternative, for the purposes of a farmed animal, is an animal that never lived. If the entirety of the life of an animal is suffering, as is the case in many factory farms, it's fair to suggest that not having that animal ever live reduces the total amount of suffering in the world.

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

#154

Post by babypuncher »

matrix_overload wrote: post #58
superkuh wrote: post #33

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…

I have no qualms eating meat (I eat more than my doctor says I should).

Your comment seems pretty disingenuous though. You're comparing life in the wild to that on a small family farm. Factory farms, especially those that produce poultry, are far more horrifying. There is also a growing body of evidence suggesting that many of the drugs (antibiotics and hormones in particular) that we pump our farm animals full of are actively detrimental to their daily comfort.

It sounds to me like your statement was crafted as a defense of your dietary choices rather than an objective assessment of animal wellbeing.

Of course none of this arguing really means anything without some scientific data to back this up. I'd like to see a comparison of cortisol levels and other stress indicators in wild vs factory chickens.

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

#155

Post by yboris »

sabujp wrote: post #123

vegetarians that don't meat because of animal cruelty : will you eat lab grown meat?

People differ, but I would (occasionally). I'm mostly vegan for about 10 years now. I've been looking forward to this technology because it will result in many meat eaters changing their eating habits - reducing the number of animals suffering.

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

#157

Post by algoatecorn »

rmah wrote: post #57
aaroninsf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a nonsensical comment. Culturing meat is entirely about minimizing resource and land usage, and curbing the serious environmental impacts of the beef industry, which is of course truly infamous for methane emissions and deforestation.

Personally, I doubt that. I strongly suspect that lab-grown meat is mostly about making lots of money selling it for high margins to vegetarians who still want to eat "meat".

Bingo.

I'm an agricultural researcher with a background that includes in vitro biology, now getting another degree focused on entire food systems. I have spent a lot of time looking into the economic realities of food innovation, land-use, energy, water, price-sensitivity, and consumer preferences.

There's nothing wrong with getting excited about lab-grown meat, but we have a loooong way to go before considering it as a realistic food source in the future.

One must consider the current price of food is grounded in the use of fossil fuels, ignoring negative externalities, and millennia of optimization.

To consider lab-grown meat as a future replacement of conventional animal production, you have to go way back to primary energy sources and work your way back from there. Chances are, you'll find that a hypothetical future of lab-grown meat is cost-prohibitive for basically the entire world.

I'm not here to argue the ethics, environmental damage, etc. Just pointing out the COST, and why consumer adoption should not be viewed through the lens of a six-figure salary programmer.

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

#158

Post by oldspleen »

matrix_overload wrote: post #58
superkuh wrote: post #33

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…

Listen to this episode where Will talks about how most farmed animals wouldn't live more than a few year than they would in the wild.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qf7CYEhxSFPAcdSw1JJMY

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

#159

Post by tshaddox »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #140
toqy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The animals that we have been breeding for ages are pretty far removed from their wild counterparts of yore. Also, there's a lot of homeless people that would live better as my slaves, but you'd probably still rather see them free.

I don't think this is sound reasoning as the main issue with slavery is the abuse of the slaves. What GP is saying is that animals are more abused by nature than by people. If the same could be proven that homeless would be better as slaves (ie. thag they would not be whipped and worked to death) then that would in fact be better but since we can't make that guarantee and history has generally shown otherwise we do n…

Or better yet, we just don’t force the people one way or the other.

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

#160

Post by nimih »

sabujp wrote: post #123

vegetarians that don't meat because of animal cruelty : will you eat lab grown meat?

Probably not. I'm not the strictest vegetarian (I'll sometimes treat myself to oysters, and will eat meat if it's the only reasonable thing available at a restaurant or dinner party), and at this point in my life, I just plain prefer foods based around vegetables, beans, and grains: I find it's easier, safer, and cheaper to prepare at home, and generally tastes better (to my palate, at least).
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