Revolting "Meat"

I was afraid something like this was going to happen...

The University of Maryland reports that "meat" will soon be growing in a lab near you. "In a paper in the June 29 issue of Tissue Engineering, a team of scientists, including University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny, propose two new techniques of tissue engineering that may one day lead to affordable production of in vitro - lab grown -- meat for human consumption. It is the first peer-reviewed discussion of the prospects for industrial production of cultured meat." They go on to tout its health benefits and other perceived advantages, then describe the processes : " Matheny's team developed ideas for two techniques that have potential for large scale meat production. One is to grow the cells in large flat sheets on thin membranes. The sheets of meat would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked on top of one another to increase thickness. The other method would be to grow the muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The mature cells could then be harvested and turned into a processed meat, like nuggets or hamburgers. "The challenge is getting the texture right," says Matheny. "We have to figure out how to 'exercise' the muscle cells. For the right texture, you have to stretch the tissue, like a live animal would." "

Yum.

I don't know where to begin. The esthetics are of course utterly revolting; the likelihood of achieving anything as unimportant as, say, good taste seems vanishingly unlikely. What might be called the spiritual effects-- especially to those of us who treasure such primitivisms as hunting and locally- based, small- scale, healthy agriculture-- are even worse. If such practices become common and cheap the last remaining connections between us and our ecosystem will be severed.

But of course, such sentiments are barbaric. The inventors are already appealing to people who are afraid of food AND the animal rights lobby: "...cultured meat could appeal to people concerned about food safety, the environment, and animal welfare.."

Yeah, that's just what the the world needs more of -- food weenie PETA ninnies.