In-vitro meat is made from samples of animals conventionally slaughtered, as explained in this article on CNN:
For example, “pork” is made from pig ovaries retrieved from slaughterhouses, which are fertilized with pig semen, transforming them into embryos. They are then placed in a nutrient solution, where they grow and develop.
This sounds like science fiction, but it’s real – or nearly real, and might be ready within the next ten years.
Preliminary results from a study by Hanna Tuomisto, at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, suggest that cultured meat would reduce the carbon emissions of meat production by more than 80 percent.
The environmental footprint of meat contributes more to global warming than the entire transportation sector.
Personal note: I still wouldn’t eat meat, even if they grow it in steel tanks.
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John P. Speno
11 August 2009 at 10:57 pm
Just curious, Dan. What’s your beef with meat. I always imagined it was an ethical or environmental belief but your personal note in this post has me wondering if it is something else.
All the best!
Hans Gerwitz
12 August 2009 at 10:34 pm
Do you have a source for this?
Related, I’ve heard a claim that a vegetarian who commutes alone to work in his Hummer has a smaller CO2 footprint than a carnivore who bicycles. I’d love to back this up with reliable data, and even have colleagues who have said they’d convert to vegs if I can.
Dan Benjamin
14 August 2009 at 12:22 pm
@John - I’m a vegetarian for both religious and ethical reasons.
@Hans - The source is the article I’ve linked to.
Cássio Marques
14 August 2009 at 6:56 pm
The fact the the meat is being produced by some artificial method does not means that animals are not being exploited, since they need to use proccesses at slaughterhouses, get embryos and so on. Once again, treating animals as machines. The only way I would eat meat is if they grow on trees :)
NJ Website Design
25 November 2009 at 8:26 pm
I think I would like to stick with all natural meat. This kind of scares me that they are doing this.
Bay Area Funeral Home
30 November 2009 at 11:48 pm
I would rather have natural no one knows what may happen 20 years in the future from eating this new meat. Whenever science jumps above knowlede bad things happen.
Bamboo Plants for Sale
30 November 2009 at 11:49 pm
A previous poster commented on CO2 imprint which I think is more important on working on rather than this type of meat. But that is just my opinion.