Future Now
The IFTF Blog
"Yeah...I'll have the double-cultured cheeseburger, to go!"
Wired brings us a story about test tube meat.
Edible, lab-grown ground chuck that smells and tastes just like the real thing might take a place next to Quorn at supermarkets in just a few years, thanks to some determined meat researchers.
And, it can be engineered to be healthy for us, too.
If successful, artificially grown meat could be tailored to be far healthier than any type of farm-grown meat. It's possible to stuff it full of heart-friendly omega-3 fatty acids, adjust the protein or texture to suit individual taste preferences and screen it for food-borne diseases.
But will it really catch on? The Food and Drug Administration has already barred food products involving cloned animals from the market until their safety has been tested. There's also the yuck factor.
"Cultured meat isn't natural, but neither is yogurt," says Matheny. "And neither, for that matter, is most of the meat we eat. Cramming 10,000 chickens in a metal shed and dosing them full of antibiotics isn't natural. I view cultured meat like hydroponic vegetables. The end product is the same, but the process used to make it is different. Consumers accept hydroponic vegetables. Would they accept hydroponic meat?"
Having spent summers in Sioux Falls, SD as a child (near some big slaughterhouses) and during my drives through Coalinga on I-5 (click on SATELLITE and scroll up a bit to see a HUGE beef "farm") on my way to LA, I have to say, this will make the air smell much, much better for many communities. Oh, I expect the animals will be happier, too.