Friday, May 18th, 2012
GLOBAL MEAT demand is expected to to increase by 40% in the next 15 years and with no huge increase in the amount of vegetarians expected, a meat substitute is going to be required.
Which is why the organisation New Harvest (a name that sounds like it is right out of Philip K. Dick) are researching man made, in-vitro meat which is grown in a laboratory.
Fast food companies
The ‘meat scientists’ of New Harvest claim they have technology to produce the processed meats of all your favourite fast foods – hamburgers, chicken nuggets and sausages. And as fast food companies aren’t the most open about where your ‘meat’ comes from they are expected to be amongst the first to use the ‘meat’.
The technology involves cells from farm animals being taken and multiplied in what I can only assume is a petri dish as in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. They are then attached to something that resembles a sponge and mechanically stretched.
Red meat and bowel cancer
This all comes at a time when research is confirming a link between red meats and bowel cancer, and the environmental problems surrounding the meat industry – the biggest single emitter of CO2 – are being highlighted for all to see.
Forget the ‘real’ burger
Whilst technology to recreate a juicy steak is a long way off, New Harvest is an important step forward in at least making a suitable meat substitute. For those of us worrying that we want a ‘real’ burger instead, I suggest you take a look at what percentage of actual meat you are getting already.
Chris Leeming, a wowdewow editor, is a vegetarian red of tooth and claw.
So do you think this is inevitable or do your regret the eventual reduction in ‘real meat’. Comments welcome
Picture: All voices
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Tags: bowel cancer, farm animals, in vitro meat, juicy steak, meat scientists, meat substitute, new harvest, vegetarians
