Test-Tube Bacon!

Dist · 20 Feb 2012 at 13:48

Jay794 · 20 Feb 2012 at 13:49

Go on then, tell me, isn't that image from Friday 13th?

Johno please? · 20 Feb 2012 at 14:23

mac1st3 said:
that's the interesting thing, I've just spoken to one of my muslim friends, and he wouldn't eat it, simply said "why would I?" pigs are considered "dirty animals" and as it would still have the genetics of pigs he would consider it "unsafe" in terms of religious ethics, which I think is fair enough from his point of view.

lol religion.

Um, no I wouldn't, I buy local high welfare (until killed that is) meat so it would be against my ruleeees.

So many practices and things in food annoy me, I could right an essay on the subject I think.

Marky · 20 Feb 2012 at 15:08

As long as it tastes exactly like Bacon tastes - I'd eat it

OverStudent · 20 Feb 2012 at 16:47

NO, no no and NO
I am not happy about that.

Tefal · 20 Feb 2012 at 16:55

Begbie said:
Sounds horrible. How much crap is going to be in this, surely cant be good for you.

eh?

surely having a carefully controlled nutrient supply so you know EXACTLY what has gone into it is better than a pig eating whatever it finds + random cheap feed?

Efour · 20 Feb 2012 at 17:06

Ill eat it, as long as the meat is grown using the nutrients of dead human corspes.

Ahleckz · 20 Feb 2012 at 17:12

Seems an entirely sensible cause. Food production is already terribly inefficient for the most part, and the space to do so is becoming limited what with a growing population. Anything that can assist this is a good thing.

Whilst I have reservations about taste, in terms of texture, grain and possibly even smell, I'd be eager to try this and see how it compares to 'proper' meat.

PermaBanned · 20 Feb 2012 at 17:18

Ahleckz said:
Seems an entirely sensible cause. Food production is already terribly inefficient for the most part, and the space to do so is becoming limited what with a growing population. Anything that can assist this is a good thing.

Whilst I have reservations about taste, in terms of texture, grain and possibly even smell, I'd be eager to try this and see how it compares to 'proper' meat.

Is it going to be more efficient though? I've seen nothing that says so...

Tefal · 20 Feb 2012 at 17:21

PermaBanned said:
Is it going to be more efficient though? I've seen nothing that says so...

yes, in terms of converting plants to meat, probbaly more electrically intensive though.

Currently, 100g of vegetable protein has to be fed to pigs or cows to produce 15g of animal protein, an efficiency of 15%. He believes that synthetic meat could be produced with an equivalent energy efficiency of 50%.

Ahleckz · 20 Feb 2012 at 17:21

PermaBanned said:
Is it going to be more efficient though? I've seen nothing that says so...

I'm only going by the BBC link, and my own common sense:

Lab-grown meat could eventually become more efficient than producing meat the old fashioned way, according to Prof Post. Currently, 100g of vegetable protein has to be fed to pigs or cows to produce 15g of animal protein, an efficiency of 15%. He believes that synthetic meat could be produced with an equivalent energy efficiency of 50%.

Obviously, it needs a heck of a lot more experimentation until stated efficiency rates are reached but by removing the need for so much animal feed it should be able to at least meet existing efficiency rates? I'm assuming electicity is needed, in quite vast quantities, but I'm not a scientist so I don't want to comment too much.

Cost efficiency is somewhat different in the short term at least.

jake108 · 20 Feb 2012 at 19:09

If its a choice between animals being murdered or being grown in a lab... Lab it is

Love bacon, if we have found a way to make it so we don't have to breed and murder animals it sounds pretty positive.

Tefal · 20 Feb 2012 at 19:10

jake108 said:
If its a choice between animals being murdered or being grown in a lab... Lab it is

Love bacon, if we have found a way to make it so we don't have to breed and murder animals it sounds pretty positive.

Wouldn't that mean though outside the odd one bred for medical purposes and the occasional pet pigs would become extinct.

PermaBanned · 20 Feb 2012 at 19:20

Ahleckz said:
Obviously, it needs a heck of a lot more experimentation until stated efficiency rates are reached but by removing the need for so much animal feed it should be able to at least meet existing efficiency rates? I'm assuming electicity is needed, in quite vast quantities, but I'm not a scientist so I don't want to comment too much.

Cost efficiency is somewhat different in the short term at least.

And what about using the vegetable protein to feed ourselves? 100g of vegetable protein would make... oh, 100% efficiency

Tefal said:
Wouldn't that mean though outside the odd one bred for medical purposes and the occasional pet pigs would become extinct.

Is that a bad thing?

Tefal · 20 Feb 2012 at 19:22

PermaBanned said:
Is that a bad thing?

is if your reasoning is to protect the pigs.

Hell we could save elephants from poaching if we just killed them all...

PermaBanned said:
And what about using the vegetable protein to feed ourselves? 100g of vegetable protein would make... oh, 100% efficiency

people like meat.

Ahleckz · 20 Feb 2012 at 19:23

PermaBanned said:
And what about using the vegetable protein to feed ourselves? 100g of vegetable protein would make... oh, 100% efficiency

Is that a bad thing?

Because a purely vegetarian diet isn't sustainable for our current lifestyle. We'd have to eat for something like 18 hours a day. We require meat.

Mark A · 20 Feb 2012 at 20:39

I'd be interested to see what its like. I'm just imagining a big slab of that tinned ham at the moment

. I guess there would be no fat either? That would be great for me as I hate fat, but a lot of people seem to like it.

Glaucus · 20 Feb 2012 at 20:42

Mark A said:
I'd be interested to see what its like. I'm just imagining a big slab of that tinned ham at the moment . I guess there would be no fat either? That would be great for me as I hate fat, but a lot of people seem to like it.

Read the article, this first version is well useless.
Expected. To taste very bland, no fat. Very white and looks like calamari.
The burger will be mixed with lab grown fat and blood to add some taste and texture.

Professor Post's group at Maastricht University in the Netherlands has grown small pieces of muscle about 2cm long, 1cm wide and about a mm thick.

They are off-white and resemble strips of calamari in appearance. These strips will be mixed with blood and artificially grown fat to produce a hamburger by the autumn.

So what is the synthetic burger likely to taste like?

"In the beginning it will taste bland," says Prof Post. "I think we will need to work on the flavour separately by trying to figure out which components of the meat actually produce the taste and analyse what the composition of the strip is and whether we can change that."

PermaBanned · 20 Feb 2012 at 20:46

Ahleckz said:
Because a purely vegetarian diet isn't sustainable for our current lifestyle. We'd have to eat for something like 18 hours a day. We require meat.

That's rubbish.

Tefal said:
people like meat.

This is the real reason.

SkeeterUK · 20 Feb 2012 at 20:51

Rather they just genetically altered cows/pigs/etc to be as big as elephants instead. More meat, cheaper perhaps.