Poll: Would you eat in vitro meat?

[MeChaNiZ3D]

As long as it is exactly like the meat it claims to be, or at least indistinguishable to me, which given the differences in structure and taste between different cuts of meat I think will be very difficult for the near future. So yes, but I'm going to choose the superior product for the same price.

 

[Ashadowpie]

it does sound really really weird, but if it looked and tasted the same as normal meat, than yah, of course i'd try it.

this would be an amazing breakthrough once it happens! we use more land to feed our food than anything else, and thats just Cattle!


its a crazy and big idea but i always thought of green house towers, skyscraper like buildings that are basically massive tall greenhouses that grow veggies and fruit year round, anywhere and its all solar powered, and the water, dead plant/waste is recycled or self sustaining. the only issue is fruit tree's, they're too big for the green house tower concept

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Same nutrition, same taste, I'm all for it. It'd have to be pretty damn good for me to choose vitro steak over real steak though.

very true.

for most things though, i don't see why not, if it tastes the same and has the same texture (if it crunches and looks like a motherfuckin cockroach, then you can burn in hell before i'll eat something like that.) then i'll take 80

 

[Abomination]

Considering how much of an environmental effect mass-livestock breeding can have I'm all for eating "fake real" meat. I'm actually quite fussy with my meat selection in that I do not eat the fat of an animal if I can avoid it so I can see the benefits of having 'custom meat' without the need of expensive, tailored and time consuming animal husbandry requirements.

 

[Therumancer]

Hey guys!

So it looks like we'll be getting food grown in labs in the near future. Do you see yourself eating it?

I ask because most people I've talked to about it have their doubts, but I think it sounds awesome. Looking at the Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat#Health) I think it might take a while for it to become as tasty and cost-effective as normal meat, plus using less antibiotics (though in fairness a lot of farmers ply their cattle with antibiotics as insurance against infection rather than a combat to it), but when it does: good times.

Once the process becomes cheaper (and if it doesn't use up too many resources) it'll easily outstrip traditional pastoral farming in cost-efficiancy. Also, less pastoral farming = more land given over to arable, and more plants is generally a good thing. Farmer's can diversify into bio-fuels and medicinal plants and such. So for me, it's more a point of principle than the fact I'll be eating the future.

Yes I would, and honestly I feel it's going to be nessicary both for our expanding population, and also if we ever want to start colonizing other worlds and hostile enviroments. Unless you want to keep them to a strict, hydroponically grown, vegan diet, it's a virtual nessecity if we were to ever build and launch a multi-generational colony ship.

That said, I don't believe in putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak. I can see things going wrong with lab grown meat, how malfunctions could do more damage than disease, not to mention the possibilities for bio-terrorism which go beyond what we have now. At least on earth I'd oppose REPLACING traditional large scale farming with this kind of technology, which could be tricky if it's so much more efficient.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd eat anything, so I'm game.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I can't be a vegetarian for medical reasons

Iron deficiency or something else?

I ask mainly because I know my sister's ex-boyfriend had some sort of condition that meant there was something wrong with his red blood cells (either not enough of them or didn't work right) which meant he was anaemic a lot and was encouraged to take iron supplements, eat steaks, etc.

I can't remember anything else about his condition except that it was bad. Permanent, incurable, definitely-going-to-shorten-your-life kind of bad.

Low ferratin levels due to endometriosis. I should be okay after I have this up coming operation. Although I'll still have to be careful.

Basically internal bleeding :S

 

[FireAza]

Absolutely! Muscle tissue is muscle tissue, regardless of if it's grown in the body of an animal or in a lab. However, texture will be a problem, since the muscle was never used. I can't see it replacing steaks, but for mushy stuff like hamburgers, it'll be ideal. I look forward to the day when I can buy crab dip that actually has crab in it.

 

[Wadders]

On the other hand, somehow I would still feel a lot more comfortable eating meat from an animal that I knew had been raised on decent feed, in an environment that allowed it to live well and all that. I'd know to a reasonable degree of certainty where said animal came from, and what had been done to it throughout its life, and the process of turning it into meat for consumption.

How sure are you now that your meat comes from the conditions you describe? It seems as though you trust the livestock industry to keep things as clean and humane as they say they do, but not the engineers. Why is that? Why is having your meat grown in a lab more gross than a pasture? If nothing else, there's probably a lot less manure in the lab.

I never said that I dont trust the engineers/labs. Just that if I buy meat from a local butchers, I feel pretty secure that the meat is good quality and from a reliable source. Call me old fashioned, but that's how I feel. I'm sure vitro meat would be regulated well though, and without any harmful side effect involved in the production. It's just personal preference. I'm probably being paranoid, but I would just tend to trust a proper butcher more, that's all. If the horse meat episode taught us anything, it's that supermarkets and the suppliers of frozen food often arnt as discerning as they could be regarding some the meat they sell us. Hence, I choose to trust butchers.

I suppose their business depends more upon supplying higher quality produce, they're smaller scale and less 'industrial' if you like. I probably sound like a proper old man but oh well

Did I day it was gross? No. In fact, I said if it ever gets to the stage where they can replicate the taste/texture of good quality meat, then I would be willing to try it. Nowhere did I mention I thought it was gross. You're putting words into my mouth.

Manure? Doesn't bother me in the slightest. Born and raised in the country fairly used to it.

 

[afroebob]

On the one hand, I'm all for meat that doesn't have to come at the price of life.

From a culinary standpoint though - different cuts of meat taste the way they do because of where on the animal the meat came from and what purpose it served. It's the difference between dark and white meat, flank steak and tenderloin, veal and beef etc. If they grow the meat in a lab, and it's never used for anything, would it taste the same as if it were on a live, raised animal?

I'm guessing you don't know to much about the subject here (which I don't blame you, its a fairly new one and its not something most people would take interest in, I only know about it because of a webshow I watch) but they copy the genetics of real animals which means that different places will probably grow different kinds of cows, chicken, etc. Not to mention they will be able to use the VERY best of the best DNA (aka the cows that taste the yummiest are the only ones grown in the labs) so our beef will, theoretically, taste even better than before. I understand what your saying but from what I've heard on it it wont be that way, so we can all rejoice for tastier, cheaper meat

 

[TehCookie]

It just sounds unhealthy for you so I would only eat it on occasion like fast food.

 

[Bellvedere]

I love the idea of growing meat.

I feel some pretty intense cognitive dissonance by not being a vegetarian. Eating delicious meat and not killing an animal would be amazing.

 

[Da Orky Man]

How does more people improve an economy? We have more people now than in any point in human history and yet for some odd reason the world economy is in the toilet vs. 60 yrs ago when we had about half as many people alive and a much better economy. You can stick to whatever economic theory you like but the reality is all around us.

Appears not. Economic growth was certainly higher, but as for the economy, the US is many times better now. Eve per-person its still much stronger, mostly due to better technology and such. Of course, this doesn't mean that more people mean a better economy, just pointing out the mistake you made.

Violent. I'll grant you that we were rather violent last century. Always with our wars, just like..... oh wait... JUST LIKE NOW!!!

As for stupid. Well, we didn't have the internet in every house yet so i wouldn't say its safe to make a comparison. To be fair i don't think anyone can honestly believe that we are any more or less stupid now vs. then. It's a wash.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/10/4/pinker-violence-human-psychology/

We happen to be getting markedly less violent. Also, more graphs:

Spoiler

 

[Demonjazz]

If it tastes the same and is cheaper. Though I can never see this happening ever. So no

 

[Negatempest]

Well, Not Sugar is very popular and tasty. So I'm sure Vitro Meat will be the same.....

 

[Saulkar]

I would have to see the effects artificially grown meat has on the human body in the long run given that it is not what we evolved to naturally eat (not that fast food is any better which is why I never eat it) and small deviations in its chemistry may be detrimental or outright harmful to human health. In the meantime I will not eat it until a few independent studies conclude it is relatively safe or even superior.

 

[Hagi]

Absolutely! Muscle tissue is muscle tissue, regardless of if it's grown in the body of an animal or in a lab. However, texture will be a problem, since the muscle was never used. I can't see it replacing steaks, but for mushy stuff like hamburgers, it'll be ideal. I look forward to the day when I can buy crab dip that actually has crab in it.

I don't think it'd be that big of a problem to make these muscles move. You don't need them to move intelligently or anything. Not quite sure what the best method would be but I'm sure there's some easy way to get those things some exercise.

As you say, muscle tissue is muscle tissue, as long as it's got oxygen and nutrients to burn along with an action potential to trigger it then it should move. Just submerge the thing in an oxygen and nutrient rich fluid or something and give it an electrical impulse every few moments.

Captcha: Science Class

Just so Captcha, just so.

 

[xPixelatedx]

As cool as it sounds, I have a feeling that it will be rated safe... then we will eat it for years, then find out it causes cancer and birth defects. You know, like nearly EVERYTHING else we invent that somehow seems 'too' clever.

 

[Dryk]

How sure are you now that your meat comes from the conditions you describe? It seems as though you trust the livestock industry to keep things as clean and humane as they say they do, but not the engineers. Why is that? Why is having your meat grown in a lab more gross than a pasture? If nothing else, there's probably a lot less manure in the lab.

And a lot more consistent. In the pasture animals lead different lives, in a lab we could determine that IV meat tastes best if you work it for n cycles through its life.

And they do exercise the meat so that it grows properly guys, don't worry about it. They've had to apparently it comes out overly slimy if you don't.

 

[Defeated Detective]

In theory, it should be no different from actual animal meat.

Might as well pencil in a yes.