Coolness!

[pyrephox]

CHARLESTON, SC, United States (UPI) -- A U.S. scientist has developed a process to grow cow cells into full-size hamburger overnight but he can`t get anyone to invest in the process.

Vladimir Mironov, a biology researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina, said the process involves taking immature cells that develop into skeletal muscles from cows -- or pigs, or chickens, or turkeys -- and fusing them to a protein that, with the help of steroids, grows into big hunks of meat, The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier reported.

The newspaper said the process isn`t exactly cloning, but more like cattle farming through chemistry.

The scientific procedure has been published in tissue-engineering journals, but Mironov says he can`t find any financial backers, Post and Courier says.

'In business, who pays to make a product nobody wants to buy?' Mironov asked. 'You show this technology and say, `Do you want to try the meat?` and they all say, `No.`'

But Mironov says the long-term benefits of the technology could outweigh the negative public perception.

He told the newspaper: 'It`s not Frankenstein meat. It`s like hydroponic tomatoes.'

Hell, if I had enough money to invest in this, I'd give it to him. For that matter, I'd eat the burgers, too.

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Heck, I'd much rather eat meat grown in a lab from cells than meat made by killing animals, given the option. Dude. Who can we hassle to start investing?

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Fast food chains? It seems like once the process is fully implemented, this would also make for incredibly /cheap/ meat. You don't have to pay to house, feed, vaccinate, or slaughter the cows. It doesn't require as much land, and probably not as much power.

We're talking really, desperately cheap burgers here. If it weren't for the fear that the American public would shriek and run away, I'd have to imagine that fast food chains would be falling all over themselves to get this stuff up and running.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

There are occasional rumors about how KFC doesn't call itself Kentucky Fried Chicken because it uses these genetically engineered chickens for more meat that are so far from real chickens they're not legally allowed to call them by that name anymore. The fact that people would consider this an Eeeeeeeeeevil And Gross Thing even if it were true...says a lot about the likely reception this sort of meat would get.

Sigh.

But I think it's a darn cool idea!

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Of course, then PETA declaims that KFC is still torturing chickens en masse in little Gestapo chambers...

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

"Tell us where the eggs are hidden, or we bring out... the DEEP FRYER!"

Now I'm having Chicken Run flashbacks.

[jackwalker.livejournal.com]

(Shrug.) Sooner or later we're going to have to go with this, or give up eating meat entirely. The Western ranch-meat-heavy diet isn't ecologically sustainable in the long run, especially if three billion Asians who now subsist mostly on rice start eating significant amounts of meat. But producing meat this way carries a lot smaller ecological footprint. You don't have to feed all the parts of the steer you don't plan on eating.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

We could also get around to a massive die-off of humanity.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think it could be massively beneficial, if it's edible enough to take the place of real beef.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's useful, but I'll put it to the taste-test first.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

There is that. If it tastes like crap, well.

Consider it stolen

[dwaleberry.livejournal.com]

This is beyond awesome. Imagine eating meat without being guilty of the violent death of a feeling animal. Go Science!

[mindelemental.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Another example of science fiction turning into science fact. :D

(Regarding the 'ick factor', one character in Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan series becomes nauseous at the thought of eating meat from a real animal, so...)