Posted on 12/20/2017 7:54:20 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
In August one of Silicon Valleys hottest startups closed a $17 million round of funding. The Series A had attracted some of the biggest names in tech. I got closed out because of Richard Branson and Bill Gates, with one of its then-partners calling the nascent companys work an enormous technological shift.
The cutting-edge product the startup was trying to develop? Meatthe food whose more than $200 billion in U.S. sales has come to be the defining element of the Western diet. But what made this companys work so revolutionary was not what it was trying to make so much as how it was attempting to do it. Memphis Meats, the brainchild that had the startup-investor class salivating, was aiming to remove animals from the process of meat production altogether.
Its the type of world-saving vision that has oft captured the imagination of Silicon Valleythe kind of entrenched problem that technologists believe only technology can solve: feeding a fast-growing, protein-hungry global population in a way that doesnt blow up the planet. Conjuring up meat without livestockwhose emissions are responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gasesis core to that effort. Just listen to how the progenitor of Googleyness itself describes the prospect of animal-free meat: It has the capability to transform how we view our world, Google cofounder Sergey Brin has said. I like to look at technology opportunities where the technology seems like its on the cusp of viability, and if it succeeds there, it can be really transformative.
Indeed, in the eyes of many Silicon Valley engineers, meatmaking is a process thats so inefficient its ripe for disruption. Animals, it seems, are lousy tools for converting matter into muscle tissue. Cows require a whopping 26 pounds of feed for every one pound of edible meat produced.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
Can we keep the cows and get rid of the progressives?
“Can we keep the cows and get rid of the progressives?”
The cows are smarter.
Elsie 2020
Dittos.
Based on the success of veggie burgers and tofurkey, how could they lose?
I can get about 60lb of meat from a deer that cost me about $50 a season. That is $.83/pound. It’s not beef. But mother nature took care of all the “inefficiencies” that made it food for my family.
There is a benefit if they can pull this off efficiently. Interstellar space travel? Someday?
By calling it “Memphis Meats” I already know its going to be a failure.
Because they are already trying to obscure the fact its NOT meat.
“...whose emissions are responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gases”
Yeah, right. I’m selling the Bay Bridge for anyone interested.
“Cows require a whopping 26 pounds of feed for every one pound of edible meat produced.”
More reason to raise hogs that convert to 4-1 or less. In fact you can raise a 220# butcher hog on 650# of feed if you slop them instead of using just dry feed.
I’m extremely worried this will lead to a reduction in mass animal production slaughter and real meat becoming a “luxury” product. They better not try to take away barbeque ribs and steak! Otherwise, I would be tentatively positive for “printed” cloned meat and eggs for cheap fast food, in terms of quality control and consistency.
First thought that popped into my head .... soylent green. The ‘soy boys’ should be worried .... they’d be easy pickings.
Just figure out a way to raise chickens to the size of hogs. Or cross them so the hogs lay eggs. That way you can raise your eggs and bacon at the same time.
I don’t understand why someone hasn’t done this. Beef and hogs have been bred to get bigger why not chickens?
Of course I’m not real smart.
Make the campus cafeteria at Google, FakeBook, and Apple serve this stuff.
Beef already is a luxury product, IMHO.
Prices never “normalized” since 100,000’s of cattle froze to death 4 or 5 years ago.
Meh! I like chicken and pork just as well and it’s still very reasonably priced. I racked up on pork loins last week @ 99 cents per pound.
Besides, I luz my homemade veggie burgers. I eat them 2 or 3 times a week. Fido luz them too.
I suggest going back and giving the article a second read (or, doing additional research). While the headline may seems to be implying meat substitutes (such as soy, seaweed, etc), that's just a misdirection or misunderstanding.
The entire project is about growing cellular meat no different than what can be procured today. However, the essential difference is removing the 95% overhead factor. That is, when we consider a biological entity, such as cattle or poultry, there is a tremendous amount of 'waste' necessary to drive the engine aka body.
If we can remove all that, and just focus on muscle (meat), then animal husbandry would begin to resemble hydroponic, hot house tomatoes. Imagine identifying and isolating the core genetic compounds and merely supplying them with essential nutrients to organically "grow" meat?
That's is where tech is headed; think of the future as "meat robots".
Meatless Meat? Huh?
Once again rich guys who think they are smarter and more moral than anyone else throw money at a stupid project
From “Better Off Ted”:
“What does it taste like?”
“Despair?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGlM6jGUSoA
Cellular agriculture - culturing meat cells in vats, instead of in bigger, dirtier, and less efficient factory farms.
This approaches the theoretical limit of feed efficiency, by cutting out all the bones, nerves, skin and stuff, before they consume any nutrients from feed - you just feed what you are going to eat (or sell).
Faster, cheaper, better (in some ways) - and much safer. Animal slaughter, meatpacking and fisheries have the highest rate of injury to workers of all industries. Animal diseases and food-borne illness/contamination safety could also be dramatically better controlled in a closed culture tank process than in a feedlot.
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