The Future of Meat?

With a burgeoning population the world will need to look to new ways to meet the demand for food. Science fiction has long proposed growing meat in a factory or a lab for the purpose of space travel because it is easier than taking a herd of cows or a flock of chickens into space on long journeys (Can you imagine the size of a space ship that could support a herd of cattle? Although these ships have been purposed as well.) Well it may still be a while before you order a factory grown steak they have at least come up with the basic process for growing meat at the University of Maryland.

The arguments for growing meat are good and many: you can have bacteria and germ free meat; no animals get harmed; no meat gets wasted because you only grow what you need; better control over the cost of the meat and therefore cheaper meat. Think what it would mean for the world if you could grow any kind of meat that you want at anytime. Also think of the recipe possiblities for growing meat that normally would not have been possible to eat due to the fact that it would drive the animal to extinction. You could in theory have a bald eagle sandwich with this technology.

So those are the positives that I was able to come up with, the questions that are raised are many as well. The first and most interesting that comes to my mind is how will the vegetarians respond. Many do not eat meat because it is cruel to animals. Other don't because it is to expensive. I expect that segment of vegetarians will vanish or at least diminsh. I also expect that some will find ethical reasons to refuse the home grown meat. Most likely based on arguments of it being unnatural.

A larger question, concern or red flag that I see being raised is what is allowed to be eaten? (Note for those with weak stomachs skip this paragraph!) What I mean is that since you do not need to kill an animal in order to eat meat from it you could in theory eat dog or cat or the pet bird. While that seems gross to us the real question is why not? Now for the real gross thought. What about human meat? Remember no humans are harmed. I don't expect that this last question while have to ever be considered because it is such a taboo idea but I could not just let it go unmentioned. Also this question has not been ignored by science fiction. I recall one short story, whose title escapes me at the moment, in which the human federation makes contact with a carnivorous species of aliens that buy the rights and pay royalties to the humans to grow human meat. Anyway, I do not think anyone will suddenly start growing human but seriously what would the little yappy dog next door taste like and would you eat it?

Finally I feel that I must address how long it will be before this becomes possible. The technology will be decades before it is ready for you to grow a steak at home. The reason is that when you grow straight meat cells they resemble a meat jelly. This is because the cells have not been stretched or exercised. They figure that they will have to learn how to stretch the cells as they are grown before they will taste "natural". Secondly a lot of the moisture and texture in meat comes from fat cells mixed throughout the meat cells. They will have to figure out how to grow this as well and how to properly mix and layer the meat and fat to taste right.

Well I'm sure that I have given you plenty to chew on so enjoy.