Sunday, April 27, 2008

Lab-grown Meat

This post at Slate and a subsequent chat with Dale at Faith in Honest Doubt brought to mind some thoughts about lab-grown meat that I suspect only time (and maybe a little more googling) will clarify.

Dale mentioned the likelihood that lab meat would have the same nutritional downsides as current meat. I would guess that they would be able to control the nutrients more precisely and thus perhaps make a more nutritional meat, although some fat is needed.

Or is it? The characteristics of current meat are largely defined by it's primary function as part of an animal. If meat doesn't need to function as muscle and flesh, would it be necessary to grow it with the same characteristics? Even if it's not necessary, would such basic changes produce a desireable product?

1 comment:

Dale said...

It's an interesting idea, certainly worth watching. It certainly should (one would think) dampen the concerns of the animal welfare folks.

It seems awfully new-fangled right now, but it conceivably take off and become very normal.