this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Two U.S. food companies have received the go-ahead to sell chicken grown from cultivated animal cells in a production facility. It's the first time meat grown this way will be sold in the U.S.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Finally, ethical cannibalism is within our grasp.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't know. I feel that the soul is part of what makes cannibalism so delicious.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Did you change your avatar just for this comment?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pretty sure it's the chianti.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

get out the chianti and fava beans

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is how you get prions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would you eat yourself if lab grown?

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Gonna wait a bit because I wanna make sure there aren't any crazy unforeseen side effects on humans, but this is a tremendous step forward for several environmental and ecological problems and I'm ready for a minimal-kill future.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Anyone have any ideas on price versus kill meat? Especially longterm?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Exactly where my head is. Assuming it is currently expensive since it is new and such little supply. But I'm wondering 5+ years down the road... Is it likely that it will be less expensive than traditional counterparts?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Bioreactors are much less efficient at producing meat than their biological equivalents. They are essentially huge buckets of liquid with nutrients without proper heart/lungs, circulatory/respiratory system that can evenly distribute oxygen and remove CO2, so you need to be constantly shaking and mixing.. which doesn't help with the heat that the reactions produce. You need to keep a constant temperature... and you also don't have an immune system to protect from bacterial growth that could contaminate the whole batch.

This is much more expensive, more risky for health and less environmentally friendly than naturally grown meat. Natural biological organisms have evolved across millenia to be extremelly efficient at what they do. You just can't compete using current tech.

I don't think we would be able to get a cheap sustainable alternative to traditional meat without essentially replicating the way animals grow. And at that point, I wonder if killing an artificially designed animal is any better.

Personally, i think protein from breeding maggots is the more realistic and sustainable source of meat at the moment... starting from a simple lifeform and adapting it is likely more viable.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't get how it could be less environmentally friendly than traditionally grown meat from cows or whatever. Cows need to support not just the meat growing systems in the their bodies, but everything else...and they need to live for years, with constant food and land.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah that comment does not make much sense. Our bodies have to function every day moving around and doing things. The lab grown stuff just needs to make cells. It should be much closer to growing fungus or yeast.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It seems the crux of the issue is that current technology uses pharma-grade growing medium, which is very expensive and has a bigger footprint, and the hope is that scientists can figure out a "food-grade" medium that would have lower emissions. Since costs are also affected, I'm sure companies have a lot of incentive to look for a more efficient way.

The technology is still relatively young, so I'm on the board of "wait and see".

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is an interesting comment and a point of view I haven't seen before. Do you have any source materials for the information in the first two paragraphs? I'd like to read more, from sources I can validate. Not that I disbelieve you particularly, I simply want to see the info from a more scientific source than social media.

And as for

i think protein from breeding maggots is the more realistic and sustainable source of meat

YUK I don't think that will sell very well. There will be more than enough resistance to lab grown "meat".

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As someone who works in a dairy manufacturing facility, you really aren't making sense.

You're describing fairly straightforward industrial processes.

There is bacterial growth in every single food manufacturing facility in the world. It's unavoidable.

That's why there is constant, and I mean constant cleaning. Stainless steel or silicon are used for any surfaces that the product touches, there is a TON of QA testing done specifically for allergens and bacteria. All factories are held to regulatory standards, I can't imagine this operation would be any less safe and compliant.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm interested too. Long-term with economies of scale, hopefully no kill.
But idk about now, or inour lifetime. Like we've been farming for a long long time. And at least for a while, the most efficient things for producing animal protein, are ... Animals.
I think this will be targeted to (relatively) rich people who want to cosplay being vegetarian and vegan. Tbh I'd try it.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I wonder if it would be considered vegan? Technically not harming an animal, right?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It depends on whether you consider the conditions under which the original cells were donated as part of the product.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep, to me it really depends on the welfare of the animal donors and the circumstances around donation.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Some lab grown meat companies have figured out how to do it without any animal cells, but it's a fairly new development. Requiring actual animal cells is just v1

Things move quickly though, there is already non-animal whey being created that is chemically equivalent to dairy whey using the same process they use to make insulin. Check out Coolhaus. They also make cream cheese and a babybel cheese with it I think

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

That would be ideal, it would be possible to consume meat keeping cruelty free standards. Hopefully it will happen soon.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Really looking forward to this! Don't care if they find out it gives you cancer. I smoked cigarettes for decades and you can't dip those puppies in mango hab sauce straight out the air fryer!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

With all they pump into cattle, I wonder if labgrown would actually be healthier than the real thing?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Super exited. Meat is murder and I commit it daily. Really want vat grown pork, as pigs are too smart to be that delicious.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I am excited and all for artificial replacements that have equivalent taste and nutrition. Glad humanity has progressed to the point where we can raise ourselves above the need to farm animals. This should make space travel more tolerable too.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was curious if they need to use any animal products in their process so I checked out their website and they're claiming that the cell culture media they use for food production is animal component free. "FBS is used in small amounts to sustain cell viability and growth during our cell line and development stage. This stage occurs well before commercial food production begins. Our company goal is to completely eliminate the use of animal components in our cell feed, and we continue to make progress on this front." I would be interested to read more about the details of their cell culture technology but they don't seem to have published any papers describing it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's for GOOD Meat, right? I thought I read in UPSIDE's materials that they've completely eliminated animal components from their process.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That quote is directly from their website (you have to scroll down the page) so it sounds like they use FBS in their R&D but not the actual food production batches. They also have a blog post about being animal component free so the details are a little confusing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

It looks like their first release is at some fancy restaurant in San Francisco. I would love to try it but I'm sure it will be packed for forever. I'll wait until it hits the shelves

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I would definitely eat this. I'm sure at first it will be expensive, but once is available I would make the switch to this.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is exciting!!! Hoping lots more money gets thrown into making this marketable, the beef industry better not attack this to keep it from their market. Cows require way too much energy and money to raise in the numbers we do. It's a win win.... less abuse for the cattle because itll be less cattle, healthier planet, etc.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The beef industry will 1000% definitely attack this

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Just like how big coal tried to fight green energy for decades yet look at the price per watt for solar recently - it's plummeting.

They can try to fight progress all they want, but they can't stop it. The market will determine if this is the next big thing or not.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am so excited to get to eat this. when I can afford it.

But when I can, fuck yeah let's go.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's going to be an expensive novelty for a while. I'll definitely be buying it on occasion, even if it is somewhat expensive. To me the cost is worth experiencing something that still feels like science fiction!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I'm vegetarian but I'd be ok with eating lab grown meat. I'm looking forward to being able to try some

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I love these articles because it makes me hopeful for the future. I used to see them in a community called wheresthebeef.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder if, in the very distant future, people will be able to grow their own meat at home from a small sample. And if so, whether anyone will try making burgers from themselves, when they get a cut or a scrape.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Your mind works in disgusting ways...

... I like it lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Like people sharing their sourdough starter, or homemade yogurt culture. That would be something!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could this solve the problem of chicken meat being drenched in e. coli?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I bet this will be very expensive though. It will probably be years before it costs the same, or less than, regular meat.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I love me a new source of food!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any idea what this will cost?

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