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Dutch Josh
Adviser Group Joined: May 01 2013 Location: Arnhem-Netherla Status: Offline Points: 95567 |
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Posted: January 25 2016 at 3:09am |
The production of lab-grown meat will start this month. In the long run this also will have an impect on how bacteria and virus spread.
A Dutch team of scientists hopes to serve the first laboratory-made burger in the world in five years, and even eyes setting up a company to make the burger tasty and affordable. Professor Mark Post developed the lab-grown burger – made from stem cells, the templates from which allow growth of specialized tissue like skin or nerve cells – in his lab facility in Maastricht, The Netherlands. The team developed a prototype cooked and consumed in London in 2013 that cost £215,000 (about $332,000) to make. Peter Verstrate, head of the new firm Mosa Meat that collaborates with Post’s team and will steer the technology forward, said they are extremely excited about putting the product on sale. “Increasing numbers of people will find it hard not to buy our product for ethical reasons,” he asserted. He expressed confidence in having the lab burger on the market in five years, explaining it would likely be available as an exclusive item in the beginning, but would be on the grocery shelves given a demand that will drive the price down. Professor Post – unlike most other researchers mostly attempting to grow human tissue to be transplanted as a replacement for ill or worn-out muscle, nerve cells, or cartilage – used the tissue to grow fat and muscle for his lab burger. The goal for developing the burger was to meet the growing demand for meat, where traditional farming methods were seen to be energy-intensive and causing higher greenhouse gas emission. The strips are then cooked and layered, colored, and mixed with fat, forming a burger that was cooked and eaten at a London press conference two years ago. |
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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I am not a "burger eating" type of person, but I will be at the front of the queue. If I were Bill Gates I would be eating one now!
Cruelty free, proven provenance - lab guaranteed meat: that's the holy grail for me.
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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WillowbyBrat and I have just been discussing this. Even if it were horrendously expensive at first, we would immediately switch to lab-grown once a week and pay for it by veganism the other 6 days.
I have long been convinced that milk production is MORE cruel than meat production and veganism is both restrictive and risky. (Algal B12 depletes useable B12 from one's body.) This is the answer to our prayers. WillowbyBrat calls this the end of the hunter/warrior/barbarian age and the birth of the humanitarian age. I agree.
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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Very true. Beef cattle are pretty much left alone to gain weight until slaughter, whereas milk cows are constantly impregnated and their calves taken (often to be thrown away as "trash" or forced to endure a short and miserable life in a veal crate). When they're finally too worn out to produce enough milk, they're slaughtered for hamburger meat. Hell of a life to impose on a sentient animal |
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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Spot on JD, except perhaps "sentient" though I would agree with "sensible".
Sentient = self aware Sensible = aware/receptive to environment. Certainly capable of understanding enough to suffer greatly.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
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Medclinician
V.I.P. Member Valued Member Since 2006 Joined: July 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 23322 |
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This could be one of the biggest steps to finally end the mass slaughter of poultry, pigs, cattle, and other animals. The down side, like immigration and off shore jobs is it would wipe out the meat industry. Of course, they weren't that crazy about Ford's automobile either.
Medclinician |
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"not if but when" the original Medclinician
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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Well said Med!
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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I err on the side of caution when it comes to categorizing the level of consciousness of other species because I believe it's something we're only just beginning to grasp, Techno. Who's to say a dolphin isn't self aware? I suspect that the criteria we use is born of necessity - allowing their use in food production, research, etc with something of a clear conscience requires us to believe that animals are lacking our cognitive skills and somehow "beneath" us. If we were to accept that we're not particularly special or unique, it would make many of the things we do far too unpalatable to continue.
We've come a long way from Descartes' view of animals as machines incapable of suffering, their cries merely the screech of malfunctioning equipment. The way many animals, fish and birds perceive and react to both the outside world and their own existence is making researchers rethink many of our preconceptions, and the lines between sentience and sensibility are blurring. Just last year, New Zealand passed legislation recognizing the sentience of non-human animals, and in 2012 an international group of prominent scientists announced that they were proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are. The so called "Cambridge declaration on consciousness" was signed by Stephen Hawking among others. It's a personal decision, but in the absence of absolute evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe in the possibility of sentience in non-human animals until the opposite is proven beyond all doubt. |
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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Good point, JD.
I'm pretty sure dolphins are sentient. As brains get smaller, especially in relation to the rest of the body of the critter, it becomes less and less likely. It is also more common in meat eaters than herbivores. Cats for instance seem to be on the cusp. Put a mirror next to one quietly and see the reaction. Those who have crossed the line will preen, those who have not will react to "the other cat". I have observed both reactions in my own pets. However, both of my points are irrelevant to the issue. You have it there! Cruelty is cruelty and hoping for the best achieves nothing.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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The mirror thing is interesting, isn't it? We have four of the furry little buggers, and only one seems to react to them. On a side note, I know a few people that would be hard pressed to demonstrate sentience...
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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Me too!!
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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WillobyBrat
Admin Group Joined: January 21 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 2080 |
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Wow! This seems to have started a discussion and a half.
I have been a hunter and a military person most of my life. Although I love the hunt, I have become less and less willing to kill and would happily switch to manufactured meat. However, as far as sentience arguments go, I am informed by the people who test these things that I have an IQ only possessed by the top 2% of the population. I can assure you, as can any hunter who has been hunting for a while, that I have been made to look an absolute prat (English for idiot) more than once by the creatures I was hunting. They are smart man. Finally, more than once I have had a rabbit, suffering from myxamatosis come up to me in the field and look up at me as if begging for an end to its misery. The look in those eyes was not the look of a mindless automaton. Bring on the 'borg-burgers!
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I like Ike
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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I've been in the same unfortunate position of coming across a rabbit with myxamatosis that seemed to find me, and it truly is a horrible disease. A quick death is most definitely the kindest thing by far. Quite apart from the animal welfare issue, I guess the upside to manufactured meat (I'm sure they'll come up with a catchy name soon enough, although 'borg-burgers should definitely be in the running) is the potential to tailor it to be healthier, with fewer - or preferably no - hormones, antibiotics, etc. Interesting times ahead |
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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Technophobe
Assistant Admin Joined: January 16 2014 Location: Scotland Status: Offline Points: 88450 |
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I agree, wonderful days ahead!
Now, if only they could manufacture hormone replacement patches for milk cows, so the whole veal thing could be avoided, it would be even better! Heigh ho! A mixture of soy and rice milk tastes pretty close.
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How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving. |
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jacksdad
Executive Admin Joined: September 08 2007 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 47251 |
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Someone's going to get rich if they come up with that one, Techno.
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"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary. |
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