Lab-grown meat: We ate chicken nuggets made from a live chicken

[Techno-Druid]

(Video Link)

A San Francisco company has developed a technique to grow cells from live chicken into meat you can eat - but how does it hold up to a taste test?

Video Tl;Dr - Tastes like chicken, but with a different texture. Still a work in progress and won't make be on the market for a little while.

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The fact that we're making any progress is great as cultured meat is realistically the only way to mitigate the atmospheric and biosphere impacts of animal agriculture, which is second to fossil fuels in greenhouse gas emissions and terribly wasteful in resources (the crops we grow to feed animals alone could potentially feed billions, which we'll probably need with that 9B global population in 2050).

Outside of environmental concerns, I would prefer to have guilt-free salami, pepperoni, sausages, hot dogs, burgers and chicken patties/nuggets. Everything else I can live without, meat-wise.

[The One Percent]

Hopefully it continues to improve, since the livestock industry is unsustainable.

[gaymer77]

I hope you can afford the $20 a pound that it will probably cost once it hits the market. Livestock is cheap. Science made meat is expensive.

[Brightamethyst]

Every time I see this sort of thing I can only think of Better Off Ted.

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

[Shadowferal]

Well it's been a few weeks since this thread has made its way back...

[Clone]

I hope you can afford the $20 a pound that it will probably cost once it hits the market. Livestock is cheap. Science made meat is expensive.

You know this because?

[Asrialol]

why dont you just grow a chicken without a brain

Why does having a brain matter? Meat is meat. I'll eat it regardless of how the animal was treated.

[Techno-Druid]

why dont you just grow a chicken without a brain

Because that doesn't do shit to offset the environmental concerns: the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the clearing of land (such as that of the Amazon Rainforest, responsible for 20% of the Earth's atmosphere and a large portion of the world's species) and affects on the ocean and and water quality (see: overfishing and pig waste cesspools), among other things.

I started supporting cultured meat because of ethical concerns originally, but that's become tertiary to any and all environmental concerns.

[gaymer77]

You know this because?

Because the more processed a food product is the more it costs. You can look at the cost of milk and see for yourself. Whole milk is cheaper than the 2% or 1% or non-fat milk. The more labor that goes into making a food product means more money spent just to put that final product out on the shelf which means you have to charge more money for the product than a similar product that is less processed. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know this....

[Sting]

This topic has come up before and some questions are still unanswered. Which materials will be used to actually grow the meat in the lab, and are they actually more ecofriendly / have a smaller footprint on the planet? Stuff just doesn't grow from thin air.

[Teri]

I rather eat insects and not lab meat.

[Techno-Druid]

This topic has come up before and some questions are still unanswered. Which materials will be used to actually grow the meat in the lab, and are they actually more ecofriendly / have a smaller footprint on the planet? Stuff just doesn't grow from thin air.

I've explained this before, they take different cells from animal (muscle, fat, etc), stimulate their divison with a growth serum (currently fetal growth serum from cows is being used, but scientists are working on a slaughterings alternative) and artificially 'massage' the meat to simulate what happens to flesh with animals moving.

[Sting]

I've explained this before, they take different cells from animal (muscle, fat, etc), stimulate their divison with a growth serum (currently fetal growth serum from cows is being used, but scientists are working on a slaughterings alternative) and artificially 'massage' the meat to simulate what happens to flesh with animals moving.

This still doesn't explain where the actual material would come from. Cells don't just magically divide on their own, they need nutrients. You can't build a house with one brick.

[Techno-Druid]

This still doesn't explain where the actual material would come from. Cells don't just magically divide on their own, they need nutrients. You can't build a house with one brick.

I just explained to you where it comes from, the cells come from animals and are fed in a vat with fetal bovine serum.

[IIamaKing]

Because the more processed a food product is the more it costs. You can look at the cost of milk and see for yourself. Whole milk is cheaper than the 2% or 1% or non-fat milk. The more labor that goes into making a food product means more money spent just to put that final product out on the shelf which means you have to charge more money for the product than a similar product that is less processed. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know this....

No, it isnt. Whole costs more because it has more milk solids in it which are used for other products. Milkfats is where the money is, and thats whats removed to make lower % milks. Hence 1, 2% and no fat milk being progressively cheaper.

[Sting]

I just explained to you where it comes from, the cells come from animals and are fed in a vat with fetal bovine serum.

Ah okay that wasn't very clear, you said it was just used to promote division. I googled it and it's a bit more clear now. Still seems like a limited supply thing that relies on a byproduct from slaughtering animals, I wonder what they will transition to if they scale up the production.

[Techno-Druid]

Ah okay that wasn't very clear, you said it was just used to promote division. I googled it and it's a bit more clear now. Still seems like a limited supply thing that relies on a byproduct from slaughtering animals, I wonder what they will transition to if they scale up the production.

Yeah, we're basically in its infancy, but as we advance we may eventually be able to grow bone and create meat virtually identical to conventional, animal-slaughtered meat. I think of it like the Gordon Gekko cell phone vs the iPhone. It's the same with electric cars as well.

[Varitok]

I hope you can afford the $20 a pound that it will probably cost once it hits the market. Livestock is cheap. Science made meat is expensive.

Yes, ten terabyte hard drives were like 5 grands ten years ago but the prices goes down. It's called Economies of Scale.

[Shadowferal]

I'm sure the EU will love this...

[oplawlz]

No, it isnt. Whole costs more because it has more milk solids in it which are used for other products. Milkfats is where the money is, and thats whats removed to make lower % milks. Hence 1, 2% and no fat milk being progressively cheaper.

They're all the exact same price here.