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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

#371

Post by ben_w »

saxonww wrote: post #336
randomdata wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could rewild huge parts of the Earth Probably not without radically changing how we grow plants for human consumption, assuming we still eat plants and don't move to an all-meat diet. Looking over the data for the area I farm, according to government figures, 36% of the cropland is used for animal food. Most farmers here grow a rotation of soybeans, corn, edible beans, and wheat. The edible beans and wheat are i…

What do you use for fertilizer today, and where does it come from? Is there a scaling concern there, as well?

There's a "running out" concern for phosphate.

Technically it can be extracted from the same seawater it's running off into, but IIRC that hasn't been demonstrated in a cheap enough way yet.

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

#372

Post by roflyear »

photochemsyn wrote: post #107

Two forms of meat, the worst first: (1) Industrial factory farmed meat, fed with crops like alfalfa/soy/corn, where the animals are injected with prophylactic antibiotics (because cramped conditions cause disease outbreaks, also a growth enhancer) and growth hormones, and/or genetically modified to promote gigantism (both applications tending to increase disease susceptibility, so more antibiotics). The meat is then…

> I have little patience with vegans who refuse to differentiate between these two types of meat production on ethical grounds. However if everything moves to the latter ethical and healthy production system, meat will be more expensive and less of a 'daily staple' - and there's nothing wrong with that dietary switch, it's better for everyone.

As a vegan, myself and most/all of my friends would agree that some hunting is good. For example, where I am deer need to be hunted, b/c humans replaced their natural predators and they are overpopulated, causing issues such as disease etc..

Personally I do not want to be the one hunting deer, but I have no issue with it.

Factory farming is a completely other level from hunting.

If we were only allowed to eat meat we personally caught from wild animals... well, yeah, that'd probably be pretty solid...

The problem is even "ethical" farming is pretty rough on animals and rough on the environment. It isn't "natural" at all, even if you are putting them in a field outside rather than crammed into a barn.

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

#373

Post by theptip »

dalbasal wrote: post #137

Polling my own bubble, I'm dubious about lab meat. Across the board, it seems that people want lab grown meat for others. Vegans want omnivores to eat it. Omnivores think it'd be good for vegans. Meanwhile, any mass market product is likely to be some sort of processed meat product. Sausage, mince chicken nugget or somesuch. These aren't generally premium products, so you need to go really low for price competitivene…

I think one must keep in mind that the conceptual idea of eating cultured meat is one thing, and the practical economic reality is another.

If a cultured meat "chik'n nugget" is cheaper than a mechanically-reconstituted-real-chicken-meat nugget, and the quality is the same, lots of people will buy the cheaper cultured option.

The same logic applies for basically every fast food product, and also every Costco-bulk meat product.

There are some people that care deeply about the quality and sourcing of the meat they consume, and cultured meat is probably not for them. For most other meat eaters, price (assuming parity on quality with the equivalent low-cost option) is going to be the prime determinant.

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

#374

Post by eloff »

wincy wrote: post #351
eloff wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When this technology finally gets there, and I see no reason to think it won't eventually, it will change the world so dramatically. The amount of land and water we won't need to raise animals or food for animals it's staggering. The amount of meat the world consumes will double by the end of the century (will it? I made that up). As the world gets richer, people eat more meat. Combine that with a rising population a…

I doubt it, considering the demographic problems and the end of globalization, we’re likely to see about two billion people starve in most of our lifetimes, mostly in East Asia. It’s going to be a rough ride.

I don't see that happening. I see the opposite of that happening.

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

#375

Post by jklinger410 »

dalbasal wrote: post #137

Polling my own bubble, I'm dubious about lab meat. Across the board, it seems that people want lab grown meat for others. Vegans want omnivores to eat it. Omnivores think it'd be good for vegans. Meanwhile, any mass market product is likely to be some sort of processed meat product. Sausage, mince chicken nugget or somesuch. These aren't generally premium products, so you need to go really low for price competitivene…

> It just seems like a solution looking for a problem to me.

Vegans primary objection to eating meat is that it is murder.

Meat eaters primary issue with vegan cuisine is that it does not include meat.

Hope this helps!

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

#376

Post by somehnacct3757 »

algoatecorn wrote: post #196
mmiyer wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of inedible feed is going to be stuff like alfalfa, which is specifically grown as feed and whose farming has massive negative effects like starving the Colorado river of water [0]. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/12/colorado...

Then we need to reassess water-use and water rights and let the market sort itself out. Make alfalfa farmers pay for water and send the cost down the value chain. Consumers will signal how much they are willing to pay, and producers will respond by reducing their supply.

Along the lines of letting the market sort it out, we could vote for the government to end meat subsidies, or generalize them into protein subsidies available to alternative proteins.

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

#377

Post by luxuryballs »

eloff wrote: post #291
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…

When this technology finally gets there, and I see no reason to think it won't eventually, it will change the world so dramatically. The amount of land and water we won't need to raise animals or food for animals it's staggering. The amount of meat the world consumes will double by the end of the century (will it? I made that up). As the world gets richer, people eat more meat. Combine that with a rising population a…

Sounds like eating real meat is going to become a wealthy person thing.

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

#378

Post by [deleted] »

luxuryballs wrote: post #377
eloff wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When this technology finally gets there, and I see no reason to think it won't eventually, it will change the world so dramatically. The amount of land and water we won't need to raise animals or food for animals it's staggering. The amount of meat the world consumes will double by the end of the century (will it? I made that up). As the world gets richer, people eat more meat. Combine that with a rising population a…

Sounds like eating real meat is going to become a wealthy person thing.

[deleted]

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

#379

Post by jaywalk »

sokoloff wrote: post #286
JasserInicide wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if the USDA recommends this, what's the reasoning behind allowing restaurants to sell rare steaks?

They recommend 145°F, which is medium-well. Experiential outcomes suggest pretty strongly to me that forcing all steak to be cooked medium-well or greater is wildly overly conservative.

There's also steak tartare, which isn't cooked at all.

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

#380

Post by ben_w »

abfan1127 wrote: post #277
Guest9081239812 wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about something like lab diamonds? You can give nature billions of years to "do it's thing" or we can produce the same result in a lab in a matter of weeks without any suffering and at a fraction of the cost. Synthetic processes can be quite efficient and it sounds like you're discarding them completely which is a little shortsighted.

I'd argue synthetic diamonds and synthetic "life" are pretty different. We also don't eat diamonds.

What about lab grown ice, then? When that was new, people complained it didn't have the same healthy green[0] color as the natural stuff.

[0] i.e. from the algae trapped in it when it formed

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