Posted on 06/21/2011 2:26:22 AM PDT by markomalley
Meat grown artificially in a laboratory could offer a viable solution for environmentalists who want to cut their carbon footprint but cannot face going vegetarian, research suggests.
An Oxford-led study found that cultured tissue could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from food production by as much as 96 per cent.
The process would use up to 45 per cent less energy than conventional meat, only one per cent of the land and a tiny fraction of the water required, according to a study to be published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the airline industry and the world’s cars combined – and takes up almost a third of land outside of icebound areas.
With hundreds of millions more people in countries such as China now able to afford meat as part of their daily diet, the world’s resources have come under increasing pressure.
Meat production is being blamed for much of the deforestation in areas such as the Amazon rainforest, water shortages and increasing competition for land.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
(son of) Soylent Green ping!
This idea is so stupid that it has to be subsidized by the government.
If it looks good, smells good, tastes good, is clean and healthy to eat, and is priced right, I’d buy it.
I dunno...
I could imagine an ADM type outfit doing this and then, after finishing their R&D and securing a patent, getting their lobbyists to push for a ban on the natural stuff.
This would revolutionize fast food in the largest democracy in the world. Hindus do not eat beef because they believe the cow to be a representation of the mother figure, since cows provide milk and other sustenance. If beef could be grown without involving the slaughter of cows, so far as I can tell, it could be consumed without problem. Currently, McDonalds sells an incredibly limited menu here, consisting mostly of the various chicken sandwiches. I could see them providing subsidies to this, as an investment.
Maybe the way they’re pushing it, but vat-grown beef and the like would be ideal for long-duration submarine and space exploration.
I wondered how long it would take for someone to post that link.
Modern research into in vitro meat arose out of experiments conducted by NASA, attempting to find improved forms of long-term food for astronauts in space. The technique was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1995, and NASA has been conducting experiments since 2001, producing in vitro meat from turkey cells. The first edible form was produced by the NSR/Touro Applied BioScience Research Consortium in 2000: goldfish cells grown to resemble fish fillets.
The first peer-reviewed journal article published on the subject of laboratory-grown meat appeared in a 2005 issue of Tissue Engineering. Of course, the basic concept dates back further. Winston Churchill said in the 1930s, “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.”
Time Magazine declared in vitro meat production to be one of the 50 breakthrough ideas of 2009. In November 2009, scientists from the Netherlands announced they had managed to grow meat in the laboratory using the cells from a live pig.
In effect, a lab grown tumor keep growing forever. You might really have a tumor!
It looks as if Pohl’s/Kornbluth’s “Chicken Little” from “The Space Merchants” could become a reality. Proves that satire can’t be too satirical.
“Simply put, cultured meat is, potentially, a much more efficient and environmentally friendly way of putting meat on the table.”
Off the record, Hanna Tuomisto went on to add:
"Of course this is for the masses. There's no way we beautiful people are eating this nasty sh*t."
The same radicals who go ballistic over “genetically altered food” are probably supporting this nonsense.
I can see the labels now: “It’s the NEW Soylent Brown. All organic, all natural. Meat—the way nature SHOULD have made it!”
That would be (presumably) 18% of the 3.4 % of the anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere, which itself is only 3.62% of all greenhouse gases. All greenhouse gases together comprise 2% of the total atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are only one of a great multitude of factors that manifest in the constant change of climate that has been the history of the planet, along with eccentricities of the earth orbit, variation in solar output, etc., etc.
Thanx for the ping markomalley !
Liberals created the need.
Liberals invented this crapburger.
Liberals can eat it themselves and save actual meet for the rest of us.
Only an idiot thinks they’re smart enough to try to fool mother nature.
Mmmmmmmmmm, lab meat.
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