Cloned food! We're dooooooooooooooooomed

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

You could live on vat grown meat but is there a huge market for it? I suppose there is in some sort of Soylent Green universe.  I like the texture and variety of real meat.  I don't want some sort of synth-sausage on my grill.   

I'm right there with ya.

And, I worry about trace-elements that we are not especially aware of.  ANYONE who raises and butchers their own animals will tell you the taste of the meat is directly affected by what the animal eats. 

In vat-foods, unless there is a program to include random trace-elements, it will always taste exactly the same. 

And, while on that note, I remember reading somewhere that our cereal crops are approaching that problem:  we use a more and more narrow "scope" of cereal crops (wheat, corn) and the species' variety is growing ever smaller.  Then, we try to offset this with artificial chemical nutrients (vitamins and supplements)... why not have a variety in the initial foodstuffs instead? 

[ivor]

That's exactly right.  One of my buds has chickens in his backyard.  They just eat bugs and flowers and such instead of feed.  The yolks of the eggs are dark yellow like gold.  They are the most delicious eggs.

Even if they could get the taste of the meat in the ball park for taste people still have different ideas on what is "perfect."  I like my steak marbled.  My wife does not. 

Natural is way better.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Think about 'moral' vegetarians: they could eat meat without killing an animal (sometimes in a not so humane way, btw).

Although depending on the price most likely that meat will end up in burgers...

[Outis the Unready]

Tissue culture is part of my real job....RPMI 1640, that was invented downstairs.

If we could make halfway decent vat meat, cheaply, we could make efficient protein rations for the 3rd world.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Tissue culture is part of my real job....RPMI 1640, that was invented downstairs.

If we could make halfway decent vat meat, cheaply, we could make efficient protein rations for the 3rd world.

NOW you're talking! 

Perhaps we should continue the chicken-heart experiments?  It may not be as tasty as chicken-breast meat-- but to someone who's daily ration is a bowl of rice, a slice of chicken-heart would be attractive, I'd think.

Trouble is, there is not much money in giving rations away to the very very poor....

[Outis the Unready]

Well, it could also go in school lunches. Do you remember grade f meat?

When I was in 3-4 grade mom told the school I was a vegetarian because we couldn't afford to pack my lunches and I had violent migraine reactions to the nitrates in the spam and powdered eggs and stuff like that. If you were not a lunch bringer, and you didn't eat lunch, you got in trouble.

Also, let's not neglect the use in diet foods and fast foods.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Aaaah, yes, School Lunches.  I grew up on those-- mainly because I didn't like sandwiches much, and my mother, bless-her-heart, didn't have the the heart to force me to take a lunch I would not likely have eaten anyway.

But, over the years, I kinda grew to like those lunches-- such as they were.   I remember I used to buy 2 of the plate-lunches, and I'd eat it all-- the "main" dish, the 2 sides and the 2 pint cartons of milk.  Anyone remember those little flat-square boxes of milk? Not the ones now, with the "peaked roof", but the little flat-topped ones.  You'd peel up one corner... When I was in 1st grade, they came out of a machine[not unlike a coke machine], and cost me 2cents apiece... <heh>

But your idea for vat-meat in school lunches is a good one.  There's money in it, and it would be a good subsidy for the less fortunate students, mayhap.

And, of COURSE, I forgot about what passes for "meat" in McD's and thelike.

[Aggie]

One problem for vat-meat in terms of feeding the 3rd world: production and distribution.  Even now, it's not a question of having too little food globally, it's how to produce it cheaply and with few resources at a local level (even clean water is an issue for much of the world).

Another issue for vat-meat is that we'd still need a heavily processed nutrient supply to 'feed' it, which may or may not prove more efficient than just raising livestock. We'd also likely need to pump it full of antibiotics to control bacterial contamination, although it might be possible to keep the environment sterile enough to prevent this.

The BIG avantage for vat-meat might be from an environmental perspective, if it managed to replace the factory farm and slash-and-burn "rainforest cow" techniques.  Waste products could be piped off the vats, separated, and rerouted directly towards fertilizer or other end uses instead of the nightmare of leaky manure lagoons we have now. It'd also eliminate much of the abbatoir waste currently produced during meat processing. 

Summary:  to hell with vat-meat.  I'm getting my gun licence again and going back to bush* meat.


_{*the location, not the president}

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

One problem for vat-meat in terms of feeding the 3rd world: production and distribution.  Even now, it's not a question of having too little food globally, it's how to produce it cheaply and with few resources at a local level (even clean water is an issue for much of the world).

Another issue for vat-meat is that we'd still need a heavily processed nutrient supply to 'feed' it, which may or may not prove more efficient than just raising livestock. We'd also likely need to pump it full of antibiotics to control bacterial contamination, although it might be possible to keep the environment sterile enough to prevent this.

The BIG avantage for vat-meat might be from an environmental perspective, if it managed to replace the factory farm and slash-and-burn "rainforest cow" techniques.  Waste products could be piped off the vats, separated, and rerouted directly towards fertilizer or other end uses instead of the nightmare of leaky manure lagoons we have now. It'd also eliminate much of the abbatoir waste currently produced during meat processing. 

Summary:  to hell with vat-meat.  I'm getting my gun licence again and going back to bush* meat.


_{*the location, not the president}

As for the waste-products.  Likely, with a more efficient chemical processing system, you could simply pipe the waste to some vat-plant-life (yeast, algae or similar) which in turn creates the basic nutrients for the vat-meat.  Neat.  All you need to do is add trace elements lost to processing, sunlight (or the artificial equivalent energy) and make-up water.... (well a bit more than that, but.. you get the idea).

As for your bush-meat, would that include bush-babies?* <smirk>

_________________________________________

* semi-obscure reference to the hunting of apes/monkeys by certain cultures in Africa 

[goat starer]

cloned meat, which we effectively can't make yet, is safe to eat.

surely dollywas cloned meat and I would happily have stuck her on a barbeque (even oif that would be strangely close to canibalism) 

[Aggie]

As for your bush-meat, would that include bush-babies?* <smirk>

I prefer bush-Bambis.

But good call on the rest... I was trying to think how one could grow photosynthetic vat-meat.    There still would be the inevitable inefficiency between trophic levels....  or maybe not.  Perhaps by eliminating most non-muscle tissue, we could cut the losses.  Would probably need to add electric power, though.

[Outis the Unready]

cloned meat, which we effectively can't make yet, is safe to eat.

surely dollywas cloned meat and I would happily have stuck her on a barbeque (even oif that would be strangely close to canibalism) 

While we can clone a sheep (and a cat, and other things) the fiscal realities of cloning meat- animals that are intended as food- makes it something we can't do yet.