{Blocked Content} Meat is not murder?

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O.K., to us that is just as disgusting, if not more so, than killing cows to

begin with!

 

The comments so far are " gross, " " that's just nasty, man " and " dude " with a

major eeuuuuu in the voice!

 

Lynda

-

zurumato

veganchat ; Vegan_Animal_Rights

Sunday, August 14, 2005 6:36 PM

Meat is not murder?

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1548451,00.html

 

When meat is not murder

 

Would you eat steak if it had been grown in a petri dish?

 

Ian Sample, science correspondent

Saturday August 13, 2005

The Guardian

 

It is the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians who think that meat is murder: a

revolution in processed food that will see fresh meat grown from animal cells

without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed.

Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new

technique which they hailed as the answer to the world's food shortage. Lumps of

meat would be cultured in laboratory vats rather than carved from livestock

reared on a farm.

 

 

Article continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientists have adapted the cutting-edge medical technique of tissue

engineering, where individual cells are multiplied into whole tissues, and

applied them to food production. " With a single cell, you could theoretically

produce the world's annual meat supply, " said Jason Matheny, an agricultural

scientist at the University of Maryland.

According to researchers, meat grown in laboratories would be more

environmentally friendly and could be tailored to be healthier than farm-reared

meat by controlling its nutrient content and screening it for food-borne

diseases.

 

Vegetarians might also be tempted because the cells needed to grow chunks of

meat can be taken without harming the donor animal.

 

Experiments for Nasa, the US space agency, have already shown that morsels of

edible fish can be grown in petri dishes, though no one has yet eaten the food.

 

Mr Matheny and his colleagues have taken the prospect of " cultured meat " a

step further by working out how to produce it on an industrial scale. They

envisage muscle cells growing on huge sheets that would be regularly stretched

to exercise the cells as they grow. Once enough cells had grown, they would be

scraped off and shaped into processed meat products such as chicken nuggets.

 

" If you didn't stretch them, you would be eating mush, " said Mr Matheny.

 

The idea of doing away with traditional livestock and growing steaks from

scratch dates back at least 70 years. In a horizon-scanning essay from 1932,

Winston Churchill said: " Fifty years hence we shall escape the absurdity of

growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these

parts separately under a suitable medium. "

 

Several decades too late, Churchill's vision finally looks set to become a

reality.

 

Lab-raised steaks will be off the menu for some time though. Scientists

believe that while tissue engineering is advanced enough to grow bland,

homogeneous meat, tasty and textured cuts will have to wait.

 

" Right now, it would be possible to produce something like spam at an

incredibly high cost, but the know-how to grow something that has structure,

such as a steak, is a long way off, " said Mr Matheny.

 

Kerry Bennett, of the Vegetarian Society, said: " This is certainly an

interesting development, and one that is bound to prompt many different

responses from individual vegetarians - largely depending on why those

individuals have chosen vegetarianism.

 

" The Vegetarian Society is concerned that while this has the potential to

decrease the number of meat-producing animals in factory farms, there are still

a number of question marks regarding the origins of the cells and the method of

harvesting.

 

" It won't appeal to someone who gave up meat because they think it's morally

wrong to eat flesh or someone who doesn't want to eat anything unnatural, " Ms

Bennett added.

 

" Personally I wouldn't want to, but I suppose if they're going to make chicken

nuggets with it, then it's probably not going to taste much different. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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