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World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 5:03 pm
by Nutso
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22885969
The world's first lab-grown burger is to be unveiled and eaten at a news conference in London on Monday.
Scientists took cells from a cow and, at an institute in the Netherlands, turned them into strips of muscle which they combined to make a patty.
Researchers say the technology could be a sustainable way of meeting what they say is a growing demand for meat.
Critics say that eating less meat would be an easier way to tackle predicted food shortages.
BBC News has been granted exclusive access to the laboratory where the meat was grown in a project costing £215,000.
Prof Mark Post of Maastricht University, the scientist behind the burger, said: "Later today we are going to present the world's first hamburger made in a lab from cells. We are doing that because livestock production is not good for the environment, it is not going to meet demand for the world and it is not good for animals".
But Prof Tara Garnett, head of the Food Policy Research Network at Oxford University, said decision-makers needed to look beyond technological solutions.
"We have a situation where 1.4 billion people in the world are overweight and obese, and at the same time one billion people worldwide go to bed hungry," she said.
"That's just weird and unacceptable. The solutions don't just lie with producing more food but changing the systems of supply and access and affordability so not just more food but better food gets to the people who need it."
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 6:04 pm
by McAvoy
PeTA offered 1 million dollars to anyone who did this. A board of vegans will then cook and eat it and judge it.
Well they reoffered the prize again.
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 2:15 am
by stitch626
As long as it has the same taste, texture, smell, and look as a regular beef burger, I will have no problem with it.
However, I do feel that some group is going to claim this causes some sort of disorder....
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 3:38 am
by McAvoy
I heard it was a cross between a soy burger and a McDonalds burger in taste. They say its because of complete lack of fat.
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:33 pm
by Tyyr
No thanks, it's not the same without the murder.
But Prof Tara Garnett, head of the Food Policy Research Network at Oxford University, said decision-makers needed to look beyond technological solutions. "We have a situation where 1.4 billion people in the world are overweight and obese, and at the same time one billion people worldwide go to bed hungry," she said."That's just weird and unacceptable. The solutions don't just lie with producing more food but changing the systems of supply and access and affordability so not just more food but better food gets to the people who need it."
Hunger is a political issue, not a production one. We can already feed the world easily. So why does she care about this?
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 4:43 pm
by Graham Kennedy
Isn't that what she's saying? Hunger is a political issue, so coming up with a way to produce more food isn't going to address an issue that doesn't result from a shortage of food. So what's the point?
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:15 pm
by Tyyr
She's talking about something that's not the point of doing this. From the article they're doing this to find a way to produce meat that doesn't require the resources of conventional livestock rearing or cause animal suffering. Being able to feed more people meat from the same resources or more likely, just use less resources. It appeared to me that the people doing this considered our current method of livestock rearing unsustainable and were looking for a new way to get meat that was sustainable and soothed their consciences.
She seems to be complaining that they solved a problem they weren't really trying to and that because of an unintended positive side effect the whole thing was a waste of time.
Then again the writer could have just been looking for anyone to provide the "Bah humbug," viewpoint.
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 5:23 pm
by Graham Kennedy
I think it's more a case that she's saying why fiddle when there's a fire to be put out.
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:36 pm
by stitch626
McAvoy wrote:I heard it was a cross between a soy burger and a McDonalds burger in taste. They say its because of complete lack of fat.
That is problematic. Because neither of those are good by any stretch of the imagination (and neither of them are real cow either
).
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:03 pm
by Tyyr
GrahamKennedy wrote:I think it's more a case that she's saying why fiddle when there's a fire to be put out.
To which I'd say you're barking up the wrong tree. A bunch of researchers in a lab have no ability to influence national policy. You don't bitch at the Congressional janitor that Congress is doing something stupid.
Well, not an expect anything to happen.
Re: World's First Lab-grown Burger to be Cooked and Eaten
Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:40 am
by McAvoy
I think this is a combination of a AR (Animal Rights, as opposed to Animal Welfare) stunt and the usual 'seeing if they could do it.'
I have dealt with this line of thinking for awhile when I lived near PETA for ten years.