Lab grown burger, would you eat it, if you could afford it?

Pumpkinseeds

I've just been watching the story of the worlds first lab grown burger on Sky news. Apparently it's a miracle breakthrough. I'm deeply suspicious of it, it just seems creepy to me and I'm a vegetarian. So what do you think, would you feel comfortable eating lab grown meat?

mutley18

No chance. I'd rather walk up to a cow in a field and take a bite out of its arse.

becost

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I've just been watching the story of the worlds first lab grown burger on Sky news. Apparently it's a miracle breakthrough. I'm deeply suspicious of it, it just seems creepy to me and I'm a vegetarian. So what do you think, would you feel comfortable eating lab grown meat?

Makes the idea of eating a horse meat burger sound so much more attractive.

Sunnyisland

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.
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."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22885969


Well after hours what you think ?
More lab grown burgers or back to the moo cows ?

My opinion I,am lovin it

shleedance

In a sense, they can finally take out the moral implications of eating meat.

How it tastes and what's in it are different matters, however.

wazky

Would it taste as well as horse though?

DrumSteve

Will probably still be better than McDonald's.

becost

Would vegetarians eat it??

LizT

Threads merged, please use the search function before starting a thread.

hare05

Meat is meat. Fat, protein, nutrients, etc. That we can finally manufacture it without killing an animal should be a good thing for vegetarians / vegans, no? As for whether I'd be comfortable eating it... Unsure about how it would taste, but it's guaranteed to be the healthiest meat out there, having been made in a sterile environment.

I get why you feel the way you do. It's always unsettling to think that something that came from a chemistry lab is intended to be eaten by humans, but let's face facts here. There's a reason medicine made in labs is the standard and 'herbal treatments' are seen as quackery. The point of science is to take all arguments to their inevitable conclusions and find facts, comfort be damned, and the fact here is that lab grown meat is all but guaranteed to be safer, cleaner, healthier, less resource intensive and more ethically sound than slaughtering animals.

And if you still want to stay vegetarian, think of the benefits to you when the 70% of agricultural land used for livestock is freed up to grow more veg.

Czarcasm

I think it'd be merely a photocopy of a proper burger, and the more photocopies you make of photocopies, well, the quality decreases rapidly.

Have you seen what they're allowing to be classified as meat nowadays? Reconstituted offal.

shleedance

I think it's due to any long term health concerns from eating it, though. I doubt there would be many, even if it tastes horrible.

BizzyC

Hardly solves any problems...
People are starving in 3rd world countries, are we going to send them fecking burgers now?

No, we've just made sure the McDonalds has a sustainable source of meat for making kids fat.

Grayson

Czarcasm wrote: »

I think it'd be merely a photocopy of a proper burger, and the more photocopies you make of photocopies, well, the quality decreases rapidly.

Have you seen what they're allowing to be classified as meat nowadays? Reconstituted offal.

Offal is still meat.

Then again I'd eat the fake burger before I'd eat reconstituted offal. If only because of the technical name the reconstituted meat has.

Grayson

BizzyC wrote: »

Hardly solves any problems...
People are starving in 3rd world countries, are we going to send them fecking burgers now?

No, we've just made sure the McDonalds has a sustainable source of meat for making kids fat.

But if it enables land which is currently being used for meat to be re-tasked it could help world hunger. Meat is incredibly resource intensive. Using land to raise cattle is a waste plus you need to grow feed for them too.

Conmaicne Mara

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

would you feel comfortable eating lab grown meat?

Absolutely no way would I eat that. I want my meat to come from an animal not a petrie dish.

Lapin

London is a long way to go for a burger.

shleedance

BizzyC wrote: »

Hardly solves any problems...
People are starving in 3rd world countries, are we going to send them fecking burgers now?

No, we've just made sure the McDonalds has a sustainable source of meat for making kids fat.

Yes, because it's McDondald's fault for them being fat, not the kids being greedy eejits. :rolleyes:

wretcheddomain

hare05 wrote: »

There's a reason medicine made in labs is the standard and 'herbal treatments' are seen as quackery.

Herbal treatments are not seen as quackery and many of them have important and useful medicinal functions.

Homeopathy on the other hand is seen as quackery and rightfully so.

Bipolar Joe

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Herbal treatments are not seen as quackery and many of them have important and useful medicinal functions.

Homeopathy on the other hand is seen as quackery and rightfully so.

I think what he / she means is the crap like "Oh, you got brain cancer, take some echinacia and rub aloe vera on your spouse and it'll be fine." Herbal treatments work, but then medicine takes the thing that works in it and makes it so you don't have to eat an entire tree for your dicky elbow, because they crammed the one or two things that make you feel better into a pill.

CrazyRabbit

It can't be any worse than the heavily processed meat we currently consume. A lot of the animals we currently eat come from farms where they are fed various chemicals/hormones etc. At least coming from a lab, we'd be eating just pure meat.

becost

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Herbal treatments are not seen as quackery and many of them have important and useful medicinal functions.

Homeopathy on the other hand is seen as quackery and rightfully so.

I take herbal supplements every day and without them I'd be up in St. John of Gods.

Czarcasm

Grayson wrote: »

Offal is still meat.

Then again I'd eat the fake burger before I'd eat reconstituted offal. If only because of the technical name the reconstituted meat has.

Just reading that again made me involuntarily retch! It shouldn't be allowed classified as meat. I watched a program on channel 4 on it once, and on my next visit to the supermarket had a look at just how many meat products like sliced ham, burgers, etc, contained reconstituted meat.

Most own brand products contained a high percentage of it, and branded products to a lesser degree. I don't know did anyone here ever see how they plump up chicken breasts to make them look bigger (I know, I know, I was thinking it too! ) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Gbwz3f-7s

kneemos

LizT wrote: »

Threads merged, please use the search function before starting a thread.

Wham bam....

AtomicHorror

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Absolutely no way would I eat that. I want my meat to come from an animal not a petrie dish.

In what way is a petri dish more disgusting than an abattoir? I love my steak but I don't like to think about where it comes from. Most people similarly block out that thought. If we can eat meat that comes from a slaughterhouse and pretend that's not a bit disgusting, are you honestly suggesting we can't do the same for meat that comes from a lab or a factory?

Like many press releases, people are getting carried away with the "burger" tagline.. It's pretty amazing that they achieved this.

The Backwards Man

No difference between the sweepings in an abbatoir and the sweepings in a lab. All burgers are shíte.

TheChizler

The Backwards Man wrote: »

No difference between the sweepings in an abbatoir and the sweepings in a lab. All burgers are shíte.

Except it's not sweepings in a lab, it's pure muscle they've grown, should make a very high quality burger in terms of content.

If it was a case of do I mind eating lab-produced meat, then no I wouldn't mind.

However, it's being hailed as an environmentally friendly burger, which I haven't seen any proof of. It's certainly a good first step towards environmentally friendly burgers, but just because it doesn't require rearing an animal on land doesn't mean it's not using up many other resources.

It avoids a lot of the disadvantages of real meat, but does that mean that it's environmentally/ethically sound itself?

While I think it's a great achievement that needs attention and further development, I think people are getting a bit too overexcited.

inc21

I'd eat it.
I have eaten bulls balls. First bite was very hard to take but it tasted superb.
Horse, cow, dog, cat, rat if its done well and tastes good it all fine by me.

April O Neill

Czarcasm wrote: »

Have you seen what they're allowing to be classified as meat nowadays? Reconstituted offal.

Offal is meat. Liver, kidneys etc. are offal.

Czarcasm

April O Neill wrote: »

Offal is meat. Liver, kidneys etc. are offal.

Yeah I got the terminology wrong, I meant to say reconstituted meat- the fatty scraps that's minced, pureed, punched, pumped full of water and pressed into patties and cold meats.

Conmaicne Mara

AtomicHorror wrote: »

In what way is a petri dish more disgusting than an abattoir? I love my steak but I don't like to think about where it comes from. Most people similarly block out that thought. If we can eat meat that comes from a slaughterhouse and pretend that's not a bit disgusting, are you honestly suggesting we can't do the same for meat that comes from a lab or a factory?

Where did I mention disgusting?

AtomicHorror

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Where did I mention disgusting?

What then is your problem with the idea of meat coming from "a petri dish", if not that you find it distasteful in some way?

Zascar

I'd eat it no problem! They'll probably be able to make it better for you than the real thing - and better for our world too.

Also check this out, its a food supliment called Soylent. Basically a milkshake that contains all the nutrients etc your body needs. Onviosuly its not meant to replace food but if you cannot eat normally you can eat this and still get everything your body needs in the right proportions. I think that for the amount of people that eat crappy food a lot of the time due to the inability to get/cook/eat proper nurticious food, this is a fantastic replacement

http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/21/soylent-crowdfunding-campaign-attracts-755k-so-people-can-survive-without-food/#FwT6D8WzYM68LURi.02

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSkOVkgd8hY

MJ23

Sauce on the burger daddy, sauce on the burger.

Gatling

So what do you call a burger that hasn't got real meat in it

The Pheasant2

I would have absolutely no problem eating this, beef muscle grown on an animal or in a petri dish is still beef. So long as it tastes fine it doesn't matter to me

claypigeon777

In time all our meat and vegetables will probably be grown in labs.
Animals will no longer have to suffer and die in slaughter plants.
Human beings will probably be genetically engineered and grown in artificial wombs while nanotechnology inside our bodies will continually repair them and fight cancer.
The ever increasing speed of computers will accelerate and human thoughts will be downloaded and stored so there will be total recall.
Eventually computer intelligence will outstrip human intelligence by millions of times.
A world mind will probably be created connected every human on earth while food will be produced artificially by machines without any need for human intervention.
The natural world will be allowed to heal and return to its original state.
Human beings will live vastly extended life spans and when they die their consciences and experiences will be downloaded.
We are only experiencing now what future generations centuries from now will take for granted.

Sarn

I'd have no problem eating it. Back in the day I used to grow pig cells and often wondered if I grew enough and fried them would it be like eating ham. The trick to this is scaling it up to make it cost effective as I would imagine the cocktail of hormones, nutrients etc. for the cells to grow effectively could prove costly.

Czarcasm

Zascar wrote: »

Also check this out, its a food supliment called Soylent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4

claypigeon777

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Absolutely no way would I eat that. I want my meat to come from an animal not a petrie dish.

An animal must suffer and die?

Growing meat this way could eventually become more economical and healthier.

Conmaicne Mara

AtomicHorror wrote: »

What then is your problem with the idea of meat coming from "a petri dish", if not that you find it distasteful in some way?

Meat, from animals derive their flavour from their diet. Proper hanging lends to tenderness. "Meat" from petrie dishes will not compare and will never be part of my diet.

You have the issues with abbatoirs/slaughterhouses, not I.

Conmaicne Mara

claypigeon777 wrote: »

An animal must suffer and die?

Growing meat this way could eventually become more economical and healthier.

Everything that lives dies, in case that has escaped your attention. Animals raised for food get eaten, shocker.

How you think something which will inevitably be created inside of a factory will be healthy is beyond me. Not that it will gain momentum which it won't.

dyl10

hare05 wrote: »

There's a reason medicine made in labs is the standard and 'herbal treatments' are seen as quackery. The point of science is to take all arguments to their inevitable conclusions and find facts, comfort be damned, and the fact here is that lab grown meat is all but guaranteed to be safer, cleaner, healthier, less resource intensive and more ethically sound than slaughtering animals.

A couple of quick points:
-The herbal v 'scientific' debate is far more complex than that and the history of medicine and corporate pharmaceuticals would disagree with you.
-As far as cleanliness goes, the evidence would not fully support sterility for food. Healthier? that's trickier again and that can only be ascertained over the long-run. It's not possible to know whether that's true in advance. Further, healthier than what?

claypigeon777

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Everything that lives dies, in case that has escaped your attention. Animals raised for food get eaten, shocker.

If lab burgers take off then there is no need for animals to be killed would there?
Raising animals to suffer and die would become needless.

How you think something which will inevitably be created inside of a factory will be healthy is beyond me. Not that it will gain momentum which it won't.

If lab burgers become a cheaper alternative to meat from farm animals why wouldn't it take off?

You are aware that much of the world is malnourished and many people rarely get to eat meat and that arable land for crops and animals is deteriorating year upon year as the world population continues to rise?

Conmaicne Mara

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Meat, from animals derive their flavour from their diet. Proper hanging lends to tenderness. "Meat" from petrie dishes will not compare

claypigeon777 wrote: »

If lab burgers take off then there is no need for animals to be killed would there?
Raising animals to suffer and die would become needless.

If all you want to eat is tasteless, bland, shíte food, I'm sure you'll be grand. There will always be a demand for the real thing, because some people value quality.

claypigeon777 wrote: »

You are aware that much of the world is malnourished and many people rarely get to eat meat and that arable land for crops and animals is deteriorating year upon year as the world population continues to rise?

I really don't give a crap, honestly. A lot of countries have way, way better farmland than Ireland but they prefer to fight amongst themselves, or reelect useless leaders like Mugabe time and again. Very much their problem, not mine.

claypigeon777

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

If all you want to eat is tasteless, bland, shíte food, I'm sure you'll be grand. There will always be a demand for the real thing, because some people value quality.

You would rather see a poor animal suffer and die so you can have tastier food? Idiotic and selfish.

I really don't give a crap, honestly. A lot of countries have way, way better farmland than Ireland but they prefer to fight amongst themselves, or reelect useless leaders like Mugabe time and again. Very much their problem, not mine.

If you think the problem does not have a knock on effect in Ireland you are not living in the real world.

Conmaicne Mara

claypigeon777 wrote: »

You would rather see a poor animal suffer and die so you can have tastier food? Idiotic and selfish.

If you think the problem does not have a knock on effect in Ireland you are not living in the real world.

I see you've run out of argument then

Judgement Day

I think it's a great how everybody in the Third World now will now be able to eat burgers, and how this 'thing' has been created for the greater good rather than for some faceless multi-national corporation to make millions. :rolleyes:

Pai Mei

We may just save the Amazon after all :cool: