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Laurie Pycroft
sqrrl101
24 April 2008 @ 11:05 pm
Vat meat  
PETA have finally done something I agree with- they're offering a $1,000,000 prize to any research team which can produce reasonably priced vat-grown meat by 2012. With a recent economic report coming out in favour of the feasibility of synthetic meat, it looks like the technology is here, and it won't be much longer until we have access to it. It's a great idea- hardly any methane emissions when compared to normal beef production, no ethical issues when it comes to killing the animals, consistent quality and (eventually) much lower prices. Whilst there will certainly be a place for "natural" meat in our diet for quite some time, vat-grown meat should solve quite a few problems.
 
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malvino[info]malvino on April 24th, 2008 11:11 pm (UTC)
In 100 years out meat will have fibre and multivitamins in it too. Fact.
Laurie Pycroft[info]sqrrl101 on April 25th, 2008 09:36 am (UTC)
I'd say more like 10-20. There's already vitamin-enhanced GM crops, and I see no serious impediments to doing the same with the meat.

Talking of cool food tech, have you seen this new mushroom protein that's being used to replace certain fats? It's hydrophobic, so acts like fats should during the cooking process, but has essentially no calories.
malvino[info]malvino on April 25th, 2008 10:15 am (UTC)
Calorie free food, reminds me of Famine's restaurant chain in Good Omens.

Farmers (call them farmers, corporate food production executives perhaps) will block things for decades. We may have the technology in 10 years we'll not actually getting it at a cheap prices for far longer.

It's not straight economics, which is why a big mac costs less than a salad.
Nervous[info]nervous_neuron on April 25th, 2008 01:16 am (UTC)
This will be great!
spiritof76[info]spiritof1976 on April 25th, 2008 07:04 am (UTC)
If it comes out of a vat, can we serve it like candy floss?


Meat floss!
Laurie Pycroft[info]sqrrl101 on April 25th, 2008 09:06 am (UTC)
AWESOME

Patent it quick!
Ed Fortune[info]ed_fortune on April 25th, 2008 08:21 am (UTC)
Constructive solutions for the win. Fuck being pro or anti, just work to make the situation better.
(Anonymous) on April 28th, 2008 09:27 pm (UTC)
Vat meat
-Whether meat grown in vats is the next flying car or not is up to debate but the point is its years down the road. Peta does not deserve any praise because what they are doing is a publicity stunt (putting up others peoples money that they won't have to pay out in the near future) to show that they support these sorts of initiatives, 1 million is so small compared to actual research grants (billions), it's like me offering $10 to whichever government first lands somebody on the moon.
Laurie Pycroft[info]sqrrl101 on May 1st, 2008 06:17 pm (UTC)
Re: Vat meat
Okay, so 2012 is a fairly optimistic target, but for once I'm really going to have to defend PETA here. Whilst $1m isn't a massive amount when compared to overall research costs, it's enough to give a fairly serious incentive to anyone developing this tech. Getting a decent proof-of-concept isn't the really expensive part, it's the inevitable large-scale safety trials that cost the major cash, and if you've managed to get to that stage, you've already got enough to attract investors. The Ansari X PRIZE was "only" $10m, and if PETA can get a few other "animal rights" or "environmentalist" groups to chip in, it could be a really serious wad of cash.

The tech for this is effectively here already, it's just a case of scaling it up and reducing costs- something which could be done in the next 4 years.

Having said all of that, PETA are still massive dicks.