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Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

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Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#31

Post by corresation »

lttlrck wrote: post #12
marcuspovey wrote: post #8

...And what happens when we no longer need cows? It's not going to be happy fun time for the species, because as soon as there's not a reason to breed them then we'll have a few cows kicking around in zoos and that's it. Good for the environment, possibly, but bad for the species.

Do you think they are having fun now? They are bred to be eaten, if we don't need them we'll stop breeding them.

Do you think they are having fun now?

That's a very existential question that doesn't have an easy answer. Is a somewhat brief existence worse than no existence at all? If we eradicate fruit flies (or the many species that live short, brutish existences), have we done them a favor?

I am a huge fan of the Omnivore's Dilemma and recommend it wholeheartedly because while Pollan faces these serious questions, he doesn't simply resort to the easy answer.

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#32

Post by corresation »

clicks wrote: post #30
agentsaran wrote: post #22

A complete waste for $250,000. Lab meat? Why? Why would any one want to buy artificial, lab processed meat? Why do people insist on complicating food? Our supermarkets all already filled with things that can be barely classified as "food" and now we have this.

Well, it's a good indication you chose to make a throwaway account for that post, as it suggests that you yourself are aware to some extent how uninformed and ignorant the question is. But, to answer: These animals are brought up in very inhumane conditions -- in crowded spaces, with no light, no freedom. The whole process is unsustainable, what happens when the world population reaches above 10 billion and demand fo…

These animals are brought up in very inhumane conditions -- in crowded spaces, with no light, no freedom.

It isn't accurate to paint an entire, very diverse industry with the paints of the worst offenders (e.g. Texas factory fattening houses).

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#33

Post by geebee »

mtgx wrote: post #11
marcuspovey wrote: post #8

...And what happens when we no longer need cows? It's not going to be happy fun time for the species, because as soon as there's not a reason to breed them then we'll have a few cows kicking around in zoos and that's it. Good for the environment, possibly, but bad for the species.

We don't need hundreds of millions of cows, do we? I think they contribute a lot to Earth's pollution, too.

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/08/05/taste-testers-sa...

I've read that methane emissions from cattle contribute substantially to global warming and other pollution problems. According to the link above, this method could reduce methand emissions from cattle by 96%, and reduce the amount of land needed by 99%.

I haven't followed the link to the study at Oxford and Amsterdam University (always a good idea if you start to get excited about general science coverage). I plan to do this later.

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#34

Post by 6cxs2hd6 »

ngoel36 wrote: post #28
6cxs2hd6 wrote: post #13

The timing on this is amusing: Jeff Bezos buys a newspaper for $250,000. Sergey Brin buys a burger for €250,000. Each smart in its own way.

The inaccuracy on this is amusing as well.

Gah. Coffee, why hath thou forsaken me.

Thanks for not downvoting this as mercilessly as it deserved.

/me slinks off

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#35

Post by runarberg »

jasondemeuse wrote: post #26
runarberg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if efficiency is the endgoal here, than bean cultivation seems way more logical answere to beef alternatives than fake meat. You basically take the the food you would otherwice feed your cows, stew it together with some saffran and beet juice (the same colorants as for the fake meat) and you have your economy-burger. No intermediate step which takes 10 times the space of a traditional meat-farm, no anti-biotics…

> Honestly I cant find a single logical reason why this artificial-meat buisness is a good idea You can't find a single reason why people would rather eat a replacement that eventually looks and tastes like a burger, rather than cow-food mixed with saffron and beet juice? If that sounds good to you, more power to you, but to think that people would pay for the mush the same way people currently pay for burgers is rid…

No, I can't find a single logical reason. Saturating peoples appetite for overmarkeded type of food doesn't seem logical to me.

Just because people will pay money for it, doesn't make it a good idea.

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#36

Post by clicks »

corresation wrote: post #32
clicks wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's a good indication you chose to make a throwaway account for that post, as it suggests that you yourself are aware to some extent how uninformed and ignorant the question is. But, to answer: These animals are brought up in very inhumane conditions -- in crowded spaces, with no light, no freedom. The whole process is unsustainable, what happens when the world population reaches above 10 billion and demand fo…

These animals are brought up in very inhumane conditions -- in crowded spaces, with no light, no freedom. It isn't accurate to paint an entire, very diverse industry with the paints of the worst offenders (e.g. Texas factory fattening houses).

That's missing the forest for the trees. There are probably lots of factories that treat animals more humanely than others but we still should be investigating alternative methods of creating meats. Ultimately you're going to have to meet problems of scalability down the road in some years, and/or other unforeseen problems with antibiotics and such. It's probably best to start heavy research/experimentation in preparation now than later.

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#37

Post by VMG »

runarberg wrote: post #23
myko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate? I don't understand what you mean by perceived need for more meat - to me this seems like a project geared at creating more ethical, future proof meat products.

Humanity has never -- with the exception of extreme cases, historical or modern -- eaten as much meat as the western man does now [1]. The only reason we eat as much meat as we do, I think, is out of marketing. The perceived need for more meat is therefor to saturate the marked. The problem arising from growing meat consumption include, pollution, maldistribution of food, animal suffering, wasting of land and resourc…

> eaten as much meat as the western man does now

sexist

> The problem arising from growing meat consumption include, pollution, maldistribution of food, animal suffering, wasting of land and resources, wasting of water, etc.

Most of these problems are addressed by artificial meat

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#38

Post by jeltz »

lttlrck wrote: post #12
marcuspovey wrote: post #8

...And what happens when we no longer need cows? It's not going to be happy fun time for the species, because as soon as there's not a reason to breed them then we'll have a few cows kicking around in zoos and that's it. Good for the environment, possibly, but bad for the species.

Do you think they are having fun now? They are bred to be eaten, if we don't need them we'll stop breeding them.

Why wouldn't they have fun? They get a comfortable life up until the horrible end. Most cattle is not kept inside huge industrial buildings like chickens or pigs.

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#39

Post by cko »

tunnuz wrote: post #10

The real cool thing is that they are making great advertising to stem cells, by doing something that has a very positive ethical connotation (which is the typical argument against using stem cell in medicine).

If it's stem cells from a cow, then it's okay because it's delicious.

If it's stem cells from the human species it's controversial even if the purpose is to save lives.

Unless both are controversial?

Re: Google's Sergey Brin explains why he paid $330,000 for lab burger

#40

Post by warfangle »

marcuspovey wrote: post #8

...And what happens when we no longer need cows? It's not going to be happy fun time for the species, because as soon as there's not a reason to breed them then we'll have a few cows kicking around in zoos and that's it. Good for the environment, possibly, but bad for the species.

I doubt the market for "real" meat will ever die completely.
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