I've been talking about this eventuality for years, for those who have been listening.

For the morality based vegetarians: Is this engineered meat acceptable in a way that would finally let you enjoy meat with a clear conscience?

For those practicing Jews/Hindus/Muslims: Is Pork/Beef grown this way acceptable?

(No feet touching the ground. Ever.)

Ya want cloven hooves? We can splice in the genes for hooves. Do the Books say that hooves actually have to be expressed in the organism before the meat is kosher?

Watch out for that small loophole of opportunity before the relevant Rabbis outlaw this...

Fighting Global Warming With Lab-Grown Meat: "

(Author's note: I debated whether to post this today; it's not exactly keeping in tone with the earlier pieces. I decided, however, that at a time when reality is almost too much to bear, a bit of surreality is useful.)

'Faux' meat biologically identical to real tissue but grown in the lab is something of a staple in science fiction. In January, researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, came up with a method of using ink-jet printer technology to build animal tissue structures, including differentiated skin, bones and organs. I referred to them as 'meat-jet' printers, and argued that they could be the harbinger of the future emergence a new kind of cuisine: cruelty-free, waste-free, prion-free meats grown in the lab. Little did I know how rapidly this scenario might come about.

In the June 29 issue of Tissue Engineering, researchers describe methods of mass-producing 'cultured' meats: muscle tissues with the same taste, nutrients and texture of 'real' meat, grown under controlled conditions in the lab. This wouldn't be fake meat made from processed vegetables, it would be cellularly identical to the flesh from livestock -- but no animal would be killed for its production. (The article itself is under a subscription barrier The article is now available online, and a detailed summary is available here.)

The researchers -- from the US and the Netherlands -- aren't just talking about theory. They've started a non-profit company called New Harvest to develop cultured meat.

The production of such 'cultured meat' begins by taking a number of cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient—rich medium. Cells are capable of multiplying so many times in culture that, in theory, a single cell could be used to produce enough meat to feed the global population for a year. After the cells are multiplied, they are attached to a sponge-like 'scaffold' and soaked with nutrients. They may also be mechanically stretched to increase their size and protein content. The resulting cells can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat, such as sausage, hamburger, or chicken nuggets.

Setting aside the vaguely-discomfiting visuals of growing hamburger in vats, cultured meat actually has some distinct advantages.

'There would be a lot of benefits from cultured meat,' [project leader University of Maryland doctoral student Jason] Matheny said in a statement. 'For one thing, you could control the nutrients.'

Meat is high in omega-6 fatty acid, which is desirable, but not in large amounts. Healthful omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in walnuts and fish oils, could be substituted.

'Cultured meat could also reduce the pollution that results from raising livestock, and you wouldn't need the drugs that are used on animals raised for meat,' Matheny said.

Raising livestock requires million of gallons of water and hundreds of acres of land. Meat grown from tissue would bypass those requirements.

But perhaps most important would be the significant reduction in greenhouse gases that would result from moving away from livestock-based food production. In this month's Physics World, Dr. Alan Calverd argues that over 20% of human-caused CO2 comes from livestock farming. (This figure doesn't include the methane production from livestock, which also contributes to greenhouse gas buildup.) He suggests a global move to vegetarianism as a way to combat global warming. For those who can't give up their burgers and chicken, cultured meat would be a nearly-as-climate-concious alternative.

New Harvest is still studying cultured meat's nutritional and production issues. It may take a few years before they have something they can bring to market (or at least make available for testing), but in terms of the technology, there's every reason to think that tasty, indistinguishable-from-'real' cultured meat will be possible to make. The question is, will people buy it?

I think so. Many (most?) of us already experience meat only in the cleaned, sliced and packaged format, where it looks nothing like the animal from which it came. Cultured meats would (presumably) be no different in appearance than other processed meats, and would have distinct health and safety advantages. And, eventually, even a cost advantage: the factories to grow cultured meats would take up far less space and far fewer resources than livestock ranches, and traditional ranching is likely to come under increasing economic pressure due to the effects of climate disruption.

Cultured meat is one of those developments that seems almost too bizarre to be real, but could have significant worldchanging implications. Will we embrace its advantages? With New Harvest on the job, we may soon find out.

(Posted by Jamais Cascio in Plausibly Surreal - Scenarios and Anticipations at 04:37 PM)"

(Via WorldChanging: Another World Is Here.)