Lab meat

“Some people avoid meat because it involves killing animals. Other people love meat; they can’t get enough. Here is a development that might make both sides happy: lab-made meat.  Reporter Win Rosenfeld shares this juicy story.”

Rumors have gone around for years that some fast food restaurants use cloned meat, well it’s true! Or at least the cloned part is, there is no proof that it has been used in American fast food chains. It never occurs to the general public how inefficient meat harvesting is. Water, grains, chemicals, fertilizers, these are the things needed to produce that ONE burger.  Grass into cows, cows into meat products.

 Often times this leads to waste because we’re consuming millions of animals a year and only a small portion of the animals are actually useful. Besides the wastefulness, meat products can make us sick too.

Diseases like:

Salmonella

Mad cow

E. coli

Listeria

Just to name a few

Jason Matheny scientist from university of Maryland explains the process.

Lab-Meat is made possible through cloning the muscle cells of the particular meat I.E. chicken, beef, and venison. Farm animals produce a certain texture because the animals are moving around and exercising. The expert explained that you would have to mimic that by stretching the meat cells mechanically to simulate them, they accomplish this through in vitro (“tissue-engineering”). Instead of Lab-Meat It is now called Cultured Meat. So far it’s still expensive and in the testing phases. NASA has been interested and the Dutch Government too, they have invested 5 million dollars. Every cell cost an enormous amount. A Million dollars=ONE kilogram of meat! Out of the handful of people polled, it seemed most didn’t mind ‘as long as it tastes the same.’ Tuck in your napkin and open wide!

Scientists can grow edible meat in culture from a few animal cells. Bon appétit? To see the video and learn more visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/lab-meat.html

Originally Aired on PBS

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