Would You Eat Meat Grown in a Lab?

Would You Eat Meat Grown in a Lab?


Many people have concerns about GMOs (genetically modified organisms) because of the possible health and environmental risks they pose. While I am not an expert on meat, I think I am more concerned about the possibility of meat being grown inside a lab, which MIGHT become a reality in the not too distant future.

 

As futuristic and totally repulsive as the idea of lab-grown meat is to the average person—me definitely included—researcher Dr. Mironov sees growing meat as a logical progression in science and technology, as well as a wave into the future.

 

“If wine is produced in winery, beer in a brewery and bread in a bakery, where are you going to grow cultured meat?

In a "carnery," if Mironov has his way. That is the name he has given future production facilities.

He envisions football field-sized buildings filled with large bioreactors, or bioreactors the size of a coffee machine in grocery stores, to manufacture what he calls "charlem" -- "Charleston engineered meat."

"It will be functional, natural, designed food," Mironov said. "How do you want it to taste? You want a little bit of fat, you want pork, you want lamb? We design exactly what you want. We can design texture.”

Dr. Mironov believes that growing meat this way will cut costs for people and will be more efficient than current methods of raising farm animals.  For those curious about the science behind Dr. Mironov’s strange research, here’s a little explanation of which cells he uses for what and how he puts them together.

 “Dr. Mironov has taken myoblasts -- embryonic cells that develop into muscle tissue -- from turkey and bathed them in a nutrient bath of bovine serum on a scaffold made of chitosan (a common polymer found in nature) to grow animal skeletal muscle tissue.”

Dr. Mironov says that the missing component in his current concoction is more fat, which he claims will add to the taste of whatever meat product happens to be grown on any given day. He likens the future of meat grown this way to the iPhone in that neither one was predicted in advance. From what I read in this article, it seems highly unlikely that the general public will be eating meat grown in a laboratory—football sized or otherwise—any time in the near future. He is looking towards ideas like space colonization as justification for his research; his logic is something like this, "Instead of sending an actual cow to space, we could possibly send lab-grown meat."

Currently, the US government seems unconvinced by Dr. Mironov’s research and hasn’t given him any funding for his unusual project; according to Nova (the PBS show), most of the research done into this so far was done by Australians and the Dutch government.

I am guessing that whatever the end result is, it won’t be as healthy as organic meat and won't taste quite as well, either.

Image credit: flickr user moedermens