"Lab-Grown Meat is Coming, Whether You Like it or Not" Topic

"Soon enough, burgers will grow not just in fields but in vats. If the sound of that bothers you, know that you're not alone…."

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Would you taste that? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Soon this might just be how Soylent Green is first introduced into our diet:

YouTube link

Dan

Love the 'Clean Meat' branding and the continual dropping of the term 'ethical' into the script.

Frankly the canned chicken my sister-in-law has been using for soup and other dishes rather tastes like it was gown in a lab.

Love the 'Clean Meat' branding and the continual dropping of the term 'ethical' into the script.

That's purely for marketing to the vegan population. Frankly, I couldn't care less what they think.

Having said that, the industrial raising and harvesting of the enormous amounts of chickens that we eat today has many environmental side effects. So will "lab meat" I'm sure. What we really need to do is eat less meat, regardless of source. Our love affair with the chicken (which I am a part of) is well explained in the book, "Big Chicken".

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Just look how hormones and antibiotics have made the average chicken twice the size of chickens just a few decades ago. An interesting thing I didn't know until I read a write up on this book is that chickens aren't given antibiotics to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases, as one may expect. The antibiotics are given to healthy chickens as they are growth stimulants. The chickens grow bigger, and they grow faster. Also, this accounts for 10% of antibiotic use.

Here's an article from almost 20 years ago:

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So… no love for the Vegans my friend?…. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

So… no love for the Vegans my friend?

Well, it's never good to generalize, but they seem to have an over abundance of sanctimonious twits.

Actually, antibiotics were first administered to livestock as treatment for various diseases.

Once the growth stimulation effect was noted they of course became standard issue for that purpose.

Serendipity…

Actually, antibiotics were first administered to livestock as treatment for various diseases.

Of course, and that is still done……..for therapeutic reasons to animals with actual bacterial diseases. However, in modern factory farming, all animals are given antibiotics. These antibiotics are supplied at sub-therapeutic levels. Plus the growth promotive antibiotics are rarer ones such as monensin, lincomycin, virginiamycin, etc. And their therapeutic efficiency is much less than more well known antibiotics. Notably, penicillin is a good growth enhancer in poultry and pigs, but it is banned in most countries for this use. The Penicillin family of drugs (penicillin G, amoxicillin, clavulin, etc) are the most prescribed therapeutics for humans and, there are dangers of increasing bacterial,resistance to them.

Since 70-80% of all antibiotics given are for farmed animals, the link between bacterial antibiotic resistance cannot be denied.

"Donald Kennedy, former FDA commissioner and president emeritus at Stanford University, said: "There's no question that routinely administering non-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to food animals contributes to antibiotic resistance."

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No new antibiotics are on the horizon. It's not serendipity if it comes back to haunt us, is it?

Once the growth stimulation effect was noted they of course became standard issue for that purpose.

I'm doubtful about this.

The typical therapeutic regimen for humans antibiotic treatment is about 7-10 days. For your typical human infection, I'll give 30 X Amoxicillin 500mg over a period of ten days. Let's assume it's slightly longer for cows and horses. Is that long enough to see changes in growth?

I'll venture farmers got it into their heads to give daily, sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics as a preventive measure. Thus, over a longer time period, growth increases were noticed. Also they noted decreases in morbidity and mortality and a greater proclivity to breed. By then, we're off to the races.

I would be happy to try it. Once it's perfected and brought to market. It might be just fine, it might be terrible.

I do eagerly await the vegan response. It should be fun to read.

I cannot think why a cultured meat should necessarily be tastier or less tasty, healthier or less healthy, more or less ethical. They could do it well or badly. We'll just have to see. We just don't want to put the kibosh on it or have the first attempt too roundly rejected, since this could have great implications in the long run – for sustainable agriculture, for space travel, for less developed countries, etc.

Actually, Bowman, I'd venture that it was noted with young stock and then the ag science labs looked into it and fine tuned it.

And as to that quote from the former FDA head, the FDA is not as credible as it once was – too much political influence.

As to the OP, as noted in the video, for the short term at least things like pate or chorizo are the near term products. Forget which SF novel had the lump of muscle tissue that was electronically stimulated to build actual fiber that would give the meat texture, but presume they will have to do something like that for steak or other products.

And as to that quote from the former FDA head, the FDA is not as credible as it once was – too much political influence.

Whatever.

Dr. Kennedy was head of the FDA from 1977-1979. Was that when it was "credible"?

Either the chronic non-therapeutic dosing of animals leads to antibiotic resistance or it doesn't. It's a scientific question. I fail to see how addressing antibiotic resistance (the single biggest current problem in combatting bacterial disease) gives any side or anyone political traction.

Regardless, therapeutic doses of antibiotics is too short term to have growth potential.