Scientists Grow Meat in a Lab: Crazy, Weird, and Flatulence-Free

A developmental biologist and tissue engineer, Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., at Medical University of South Carolina is bioengineering "cultured" meat. According to a story on Yahoo News, it's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises.

It's called in-vitro cultured meat and it's no doubt a controversial idea. The USDA and the National Institute of Health have refused to fund the program.

"There's a yuck factor when people find out meat is grown in a lab. They don't like to associate technology with food," said Nicholas Genovese, 32, a researcher working under a PETA three-year grant to run Dr. Mironov's meat-growing lab.

Genovese contends that there are a lot of products today that claim to be naturally produced that are produced in a similar manner. And he's right; the term natural means little to nothing with regards to food safety. In order to ensure your food's ethical production the only labels that you can truly depend on are USDA Organic, Fair Trade, and Non-GMO Project. His perspective is an interesting one. He cites that beer is produced in a brewery, wine in a winery, and he hopes that his "in-vitro meat" will be produced in a "carnery."

The yuck factor is still there without a doubt, but if more Americans owned up to the yuck/brutal factor that defines the factory farmed livestock industry in this nation then their stomachs would turn over at the thought of a burger.

According to Yahoo News:

Dr. Mironov has taken myoblasts -- embryonic cells that develop into muscle tissue -- from turkey and bathed them in a nutrient bath of bovine serum on a scaffold made of chitosan (a common polymer found in nature) to grow animal skeletal muscle tissue. And adding a vascular system so that interior cells can receive oxygen will enable the growth of steak, say, instead of just thin strips of muscle tissue.

Cultured meat doesn't have a digestive system, which has a two-fold benefit. In-vitro meat doesn't release methane gas, a greenhouse gas that's 23 times more polluting than carbon dioxide. And according to Mironov, it takes 3 to 8 pounds of nutrients to make one pound of meat. Cultured meat doesn't consume or produce, so it's way more sustainable.

But even still, both lab meat and factory farmed meat are the furthest thing from appetizing to me. I'd much rather enjoy a bean burger or a tempeh Reuben then either one.