Not a "test-tube burger."
Predictions that worldwide consumption of meat could double by 2050, combined with the unsustainable environmental impacts of raising livestock, are leading scientists to look to the lab as means of satisfying our carnivorous appetites.
The idea of growing meat from cells isn’t new, but the recent announcement that a “test tube hamburger” could be perhaps a year away has sparked renewed interest and a flurry of news coverage.
According to Mark Post, a physiology professor at the Netherlands’ Maastricht University who is leading such an effort, meat for the cultured burger would be grown from 10,000 stem cells extracted from cattle.
In-vitro pork strips and fish fillets have already been grown in the lab, but thus far, cultured products haven’t looked very appetizing nor tasted like their natural counterparts.
So, if you’re expecting a juicy, artificially grown, porterhouse to emerge from this latest research, forget it. The result will more like a minced, meat-like substance that could be formed into something resembling a hamburger. What it will taste like is, of course, anyone’s guess.
While the very thought of growing natural muscle cells into meat products is enough to make many squeamish (and enough to turn some into vegetarians), there don’t appear to be many sustainable, long-term alternatives.
Presently, raising livestock accounts for about 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, places high demands on increasingly valuable land and water, and drives grain prices higher. Increased demand from developing countries for meat and meat products will only exacerbate these impacts, so the economic incentive to develop viable, artificial production methods is enormous.
Sooner or later, it’s more likely than not that this stuff will be coming to a grocery store near you.
