Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away • Hacker News Board

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#91

Post by noeltock » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 10:46 AM UTC

ebiester wrote: post #26

DanI-S wrote: post #9

This is awesome. Presumably, at some point we'll have the process optimised to the point that it could be done in your own home, or at a local (supermarket?) level. Imagine having a kitchen appliance that produces meat from liquid feedstock. Even more speculatively, I wonder if the nutrient medium could be produced from other kitchen scraps? That's basically what animals were kept for in the past. Aside, it sounds li…

Duplicating the taste of fish would be more important, especially if it could get to sushi-grade. Fishing many larger fish is becoming unsustainable. It's also more difficult because not only does texture matter, but the meat filters through sea water to get its taste.

Good call on sushi-grade fish, though I could imagine people still being picky about it (i.e. what's the point of eating sushi if it's not real, or tastes even 10% off).

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#92

Post by billswift » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:13 AM UTC

superkarn wrote: post #64

DanI-S wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true. We generally forget that nature == nanotech. It's like we have an standard library out there, but with really shitty documentation.

More like reverse engineering with non-existent documentation. And not just nanotech, we have already copied/borrowed a lot from nature.

Not just lack of documentation either. It is really complex spaghetti code with almost no modularization. What modularization there is (organs and even tissues) is on a gross (output) level, on the genetic (code) level almost everything affects almost everything.

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#93

Post by wlievens » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:25 AM UTC

mambodog wrote: post #63

A news story I saw last night about synthetic sausages contained a vox pop from a woman who claimed that she would not eat them because it was "unethical". I have to say, my mind was blown by her apparent construction of ethics.

Strange indeed. If her answer had been that it's unnatural, she may have a point (not one I'd uphold thouhg), but unethical makes no sense.

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#94

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:30 AM UTC

intranation wrote: post #85

ansy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetarians are pretty diverse and really can't be considered as a single group. Some vegetarians eat fish, some sneak pepperoni pizza, some eat dairy, some will eat anything but steak, some extend the definition beyond food to clothing and furniture. The addition of test tube meat will just add one more variable to further diversify people under the "the vegetarians" label. In a similar vein, would someone who ident…

How can someone who eats fish, pepperoni, or steak call themselves vegetarian without any irony?

[deleted]

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#95

Post by wlievens » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:32 AM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #83

gte910h wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your points about non-meat animal products still very much hold still. Pigs would be pets and sources of organ scaffolding for humans. Additionally, the yearlong production of milk in animals requires contant pregnancies, so will still cause many animals to killed. For instance, goat milk products kill far more male goats than any demands for the meat. There are multiple types of vegetarians. Ones who dislike the mor…

Seems like lab-grown milk would be easier than lab-grown meat. No texture issues. I wonder if anyone's working on that.

The ethical motivation is a lot smaller though, I presume.

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#96

Post by billswift » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:37 AM UTC

glyphobet wrote: post #76

If lab-grown meat qualifies as vegetarian, will that mean that lab-grown human meat won't count as cannibalism? Wacky.

http://www.amazon.com/Contingency-Cannibalism-Superhardcore-...

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#97

Post by gte910h » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 11:44 AM UTC

wlievens wrote: post #95

DennisP wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like lab-grown milk would be easier than lab-grown meat. No texture issues. I wonder if anyone's working on that.

The ethical motivation is a lot smaller though, I presume.

The energy motivation is a TON of a lot smaller. Milk doesn't take near the energy to make as meat.

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#98

Post by crazydiamond » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 12:43 PM UTC

intranation wrote: post #85

ansy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetarians are pretty diverse and really can't be considered as a single group. Some vegetarians eat fish, some sneak pepperoni pizza, some eat dairy, some will eat anything but steak, some extend the definition beyond food to clothing and furniture. The addition of test tube meat will just add one more variable to further diversify people under the "the vegetarians" label. In a similar vein, would someone who ident…

How can someone who eats fish, pepperoni, or steak call themselves vegetarian without any irony?

He said "but steak". There are various kinds of vegetarians as he says, some who have eggs, some who have milk products etc. Regarding fish, I actually have relatives from Kerala, South India who are vegetarians who eat fish. They call it "the vegetable of the sea".

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#99

Post by sankara » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 12:47 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #78

sankara wrote: post #75

Hypothetical question. Let's say this fruitions and is widely popular. Wouldn't that mean we would simply stop rearing cattle and poultry? Would that mean the species will go extinct? Now isn't that cruelty.

I don't think you can be cruel to a species because a species doesn't feel anxiety and pain.

"Now isn't that cruelty" - was meant at the species going extinct. Just a pun. Not a literal comparison with slaughter.

Re: Lab-grown meat might be only 6 months away

#100

Post by JoeAltmaier » Fri, Sep 02, 2011, 1:58 PM UTC

richcollins wrote: post #90

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is confusing to put meat in a category of foods missing from first-world diets. Should we add caviar and pound cake to that list too? More significant: will it be a diet improvement to replace fatty hamburger with this 'meat'? Perhaps - since Americans eat pounds of meat per day, a whole week's worth of protein in a Wendy's Double with Cheese.

We evolved to eat wild game. First world humans are missing the meat that we should be eating.

...and that relates to purebred beef cattle, how?

I imagine there are far more useful things to worry about in the American diet, than subtle differences between a single strain of pork muscle vs which strain of angus they're eating. Like how much they're eating; how much fat, salt, empty carbohydrates.

If you are worried for yourself, fine, FUD away and eat vegan. But as a social phenomenon, I can't see how lab-meat can be very harmful, and it is a certain good.