There's an actual paper out now on how to grow edible meat without the animal. Found via this Ars Technica article. Wow. I didn't realize we were so close to this stuff, but I guess it makes sense. If we're talking about growing human organs from stem cells, why not chunks of animal flesh? I bet it'd take a long long time for this sort of thing to pass FDA (and USDA?) approval though. :) I sure look forward to the ethical debates when this stuff actually gets made. I can see some ethical vegetarians finding this acceptable, and I can see some people finding this even more appalling. Personally, I'm a big fan of animal-less meat research, because I eat meat, but I do feel a little guilty about the animals getting killed for it. I don't know if animal-less meat will be a reality in my lifetime, but I'd eat it!
Comments (2)
Sweet!
Posted by SSR | July 11, 2005
Posted on July 11, 2005
Hmm... I'm don't know whether this solves the ethical question. I'm not talking about the animal stem cell ("I can hear them screaming" :P ). If you're going to start with a cell and end up with a meal, the substance has to come from somewhere. I didn't read the paper too carefully, but if they end up having to feed the cells animal products to make cultured meat, well, it'd be like promoting capital punishment as just punishment for violating "Thou shalt not kill." :)
Posted by The Faucet | July 14, 2005
Posted on July 14, 2005