Artificial meat is almost ready for primetime according to this article from the UK.
“All food futurologists agree we can’t go on eating the way we have. But though the organic lobby is convinced that back to basics could solve the world’s problems, no serious scientist believes traditional farming alone will work. And so we will have to accept the new and “unnatural” if we want to stay fed.” (Alex Renton)
Or maybe they use stem cells from living creatures. The article quotes Cor van der Weele, Professor of Humanistic Philosophy at Wageningen University, as saying, “People will see the moral benefits of cultured meats. Taking stem cells from a pig rather than killing millions of pigs in factories is already a more attractive idea to consumers.”
That does make it sound appealing, doesn’t it?
But it’s one more step–a HUGE step–in genetic modification (GM), a step difficult to undo once it’s taken.
The article goes on to say that it was a “historic mistake” to introduce herbicides as the first GMO (genetically modified organisms) products. Apparently the suicidal deaths of hundreds of Indian farmers in 2011 is “appalling publicity.” And yet the article adds (very next paragraph): “African scientists say, ‘Don’t you dare bar us from this technology.'”
Really? To desperately yearn for the same technology others have suicided to escape from? That’s mindboggling.
Is the world population growing rapidly? Yes. Is feeding everyone a challenge? Obviously. It’s estimated that 13% of the world is hungry.
But are we truly going to put our trust in fake meat and other genetically modified “foods?” In big corporations who claim they only have the benefit of the poor in mind? In scientists who say there are risks, but “we’re better able to monitor them than ever before?”
Those of us with food on our tables also tend to have computers, Internet access, and research materials. We can learn and study and find alternatives.
That 13% tends not to have the option.
Would they rather have bioengineered meat/food than starve to death? I’m sure they would.
But we–the rest of us–have a choice. Let’s choose wisely. Please. For the poor and hungry as well as for ourselves. Let’s choose alternatives that heal the planet, not turn it into a science fiction feature from which there is no return.
I’m all for using science to help humanity survive. After all, it’s our only redeeming quality, our ability to learn and create. However, I’m with you on bioengineered meat, especially when the same research has shown that most people’s diets are too meat heavy as it is. Better to come up with ways to maximize our growing space, like vertical farmland, than to mess with things we barely understand to produce something we shouldn’t be eating in such quantities anyway.
Hmm, thanks for the idea for the next blog post… 🙂
Check my interesting links. I think the two vertical farming ones have posted already :).
Shudders. Artificial meat…eek.
No kidding, right?
Bi-engineered meat, genetically-modified seeds – we’re out of luck either way. Did you know that it’s now illegal to store your own heirloom seeds even for personal use? That food bill that got passed about a year ago made it illegal, and also illegal to sell or even give away produce you grow in your yard. Can’t wait for them to start enforcing THAT.
Apparently, nobody learned anything from Mao’s China and the deadly famine he caused because he wanted to control the food supply.
I’m Canadian and don’t know much about this bill. Wouldn’t that shut down every backyard garden and every farmers’ market?
In theory, yes, but I really can’t see how they will enforce it.
That’s wild. Unbelievably crazy.
It also illegal under EU law (to sell the seeds) but there is a loophole that allows you to swap them. I would go vegetarian than eat meet grown in vitro. Perhaps that something to do with having grown cells in culture…?