Good news for pigs. I’ll be delighted to see factory farming disappear and be replaced by tech like this.
Except for the pigs raised for stem cells? Which I think somehow is an even more distopian concept… Maybe just a different flavour.
Note: I am actually in the comments looking for the answer to my question “how many stem cells?”. Like per lb or whatever… What’s the ratio?
The article answers your question
It involves nothing more than pulling a single cell once from a pig without causing harm.
Thank you. I read the article, I swear, before posting. (Literally stopped what I was typing after I read my own statement “looking in the comments”) Not sure how I missed that.
The whole “stem cells from a fetus” thing certain groups try to spread is false. Technically stems cells can come from a fetus, but they generally don’t. We even have methods to turn regular cells into stem cells I’m pretty sure. This doesn’t do anything more than taking cell(s) from a pig one time and they can be grown on their own potentially forever. No other pig needs to be involved.
Technically kosher because there’s no cloven hooves?
As a technical Jew I can say that yes, this is technically kosher ^disclaimer: I have no knowledge at all of Jewish custom or scripture^
What
Their mother was Jewish but they haven’t been taught the religion, making them technically Jewish but without any knowledge of Judaism.
He’s a Jew but not Jewish.
Like me.
One is an ethnicity. The other is a religion. It’s easy to get them confused.
He’s Jew-ish
So is everybody here a technical Jew? Like, that’s three of us, and this isn’t a huge community.
I’m Brian, and so is my wife.
Brian is an interesting name for a woman. Then again, my brother Steven married a man named Stephen.
I’m reasonably certain I wouldn’t count. As far as I know there were no Jews (by ethnicity) in my family for the last couple hundred years.
I do, however, count as a Native American, specifically I’m ¹/16th Lakota.
Ahhhhh this makes more sense, thanks for clarifying!
Bingo 👍👌
They’re a theoretical Jew like Einstein was a theoretical physicist.
New judaism lore dropped
But is it considered cannon?
They’re not technically kosher. Nor halal.
NOT YET
It hasn’t officially been ruled upon by either kosher or halal certification boards yet (although many Jewish and Islamic leaders have expressed differing opinions on the matter), but most lab meat growers very much hope it will be ruled as what is known as “parvere” — or not meat. That is to say, since it didn’t actually come from an animal, it’s not technically meat, it has no blood, wasn’t slaughtered, etc., and, as such is considered more in line with a vegetable or other foodstuff that isn’t milk or meat.
If lab meat is considered in this way, it could clear the way for Kosher and Halal certification as well as for Hindus who do not eat beef, and many others with objections to eating meat for various reasons.
kosher or halal certification boards
That’s fucking wild.
We live in a brave New World, adjudicated by a very old and blind one
Imagine if the next big Abrahamic schism comes over wether or not lab grown meat is halal/kosher or not.
While the Christians cry over whether it’s “woke”.
The mere mention of stem cells will rustle all the Christian Jimmies.
I culture cells for a living. Not that these are the only ways, but the most common and effective ways to grow cells in the lab is to add either FBS (fetal bovine serum) or BSA (bovine serum albumin) to the culture media. Currently we don’t mass produce BSA in an animal free manner and FBS is by nature an animal product. Granted, that the products of one animal may in fact allow manufacturers produce more than enough ‘animal-free meat’ to overcome this but I haven’t seen any numbers. I’m interested in hearing more about these techniques going forward and in determining if animal-free products can really be produced animal free.
Do you use Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) to make your meat?
No, for a simple reason: we’re committed to making meat without causing any harm at all to animals. So we’ve developed a production process that doesn’t require FBS.
That’s what they say.
Where did you read this? Could you link a source please?
Bottom of the page
A man of culture I see
I culture cells for a living.
Relatable.
I culture cells for a living.
Sorry, this is all my addled GenX brain could think of when I read that.
😁
Asking the real questions!
Yes, very Kosher.
source: porky the pig
Sausage seems like the perfect entry point for this technology. People don’t really care what goes in them as long as it tastes good. It’s also a lot more forgiving from a texture perspective. It would even be feasible to expand to more exotic sausages like pheasant or alligator.
I know i’m in a significant minority, but I care a great deal what goes in processed pork products (or rather, my gut cares). I’ve yet to pin down which “preservative” commonly used in pork/pork-like products I’m allergic to, but I have a serious problem with even Kosher Hot dogs.
Basically, if its not fresh homemade bratwurst or sausage, I just can’t eat it.
I’m sure that, if these methods continue to become more viable than their livestock counterparts, then the need to use at least some preservatives will decrease… hopefully.
Man, that’s gotta suck. Not knowing exactly what’s causing the problem can mean it being a problem unexpectedly with other things.
Its not awesome, but for theost part, that specific reaction is limited to just that. I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to food, so i’m sure that whatever chemical causes it is limited in use outside of that market.
Maybe is not one specific product but the mix in those sausages.
Some ideas you’ve probably already considered:
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Nitrates and nitrites: in pretty much every commercial sausage. May be listed in the ingredients as curing salt or Prague powder.
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Onion or garlic powder
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Breadcrumbs
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Emulsifiers: in any kind of hotdog or Weiner where it’s all blended and looks smooth, as opposed to a sausage where you can actually see little pieces of fat and meat. Listed in the ingredients as some kind of gum or some kind of glyceride.
Those first three I don’t think are exclusive to pork products, and I’m sure its not Onion/Garlic powders or breadcrumbs. I use them frequently when cooking without getting sick.
But emulsifiers… would sausage/bratwurst of a lesser quality also have them? And are they exlclusive to tubular pork? Because they sound they may be the same thing that’s in most sugar-free gums, and glyceride by itself is everywhere, unless it’s a specific kind.
I appreciate the help, but like I said I have narrowed it down to something that’s pretty exclusively used to preserve pork for really any duration of shelf life of a grocery store. I don’t get sick when I eat fresh pork of any kind, well I guess so long as it’s cooked, and I don’t get sick when I eat other animal products with preservatives in it, or at least not consistently at all.
I’m good with just leading this pseudo-jewish life for the time being. Honestly unless it’s like quality fresh brought worse at Oktoberfest, then I don’t really feel like I’m missing out anyways.
I have narrowed it down to something that’s pretty exclusively used to preserve pork
I don’t know of any preservatives that are exclusively used for pork. I’m a butcher so I have pretty good knowledge of that stuff. I didn’t really expect it would help you but I thought I’d take a shot in the dark.
I don’t really feel like I’m missing out anyways.
Grocery store sausages, definitely not.
Emulsifiers
Good to know.
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You have to compete with plant based sausages though which, unless some big breakthrough happens, will be much cheaper. They’ll also probably taste pretty similar cause this is only generating cells, they’ll have to add in a bunch of other artificial stuff like heme to make it taste like a sausage at which point I’m not sure if people could taste the difference between animal cells and plant cells as the base.
As someone who really enjoys meat but tries to eat vegetarian (and does so 99% of the time), I can’t say that I’ve ever been impressed by the taste of a non-meat sausage. Every single one I’ve had has left me wishing I’d just had falafel instead. Fortunately falafel is delicious and cheap
Notably, though, vegetarian haggis - which is essentially just a large sausage - is usually pretty damn good. I have no idea why it seems to end up differently. Maybe because haggis depends less on the meat flavour in the first place?
I had a vegetarian sausage that had a close-ish flavor recently. It might have been Beyond? The texture was surprisingly awful though. Far from inedible, but I’d expect all parts of the texture to be closer, especially the casing.
The big difference will be if they can generate fat cells too.
People don’t really care what goes in them as long as it tastes good.
American, I presume?
Bingo!
I’m skeptical. It’s been really picking hard to get those things to grow in a vat. This would be a huge breakthrough, and popsci has a way of leaving out critical, fatal details.
Sustainable sources of real meat without killing animals are very welcome! Good luck to them because killing things to eat meat is the worst.
My hope is that these alternative meat industries also factor in job creation opportunities for people who are working in conventional meat production right now—if there’s populist pressure towards moving for more lucrative and safer jobs in lab-manufactured meats, that would be help reduce pressure from farm industry lobbyists, I think.
But the above is a secondary goal (and maybe the responsibility of another party), and shouldn’t distract from the primary goal of researching methods to create sustainable, cruelty-free lab-manufactured meats!
Real basic question first: where are they getting all those stem cells?
Here’s what they say on their site: https://meatable.com/
I couldn’t find the exact procedure details.
Than you have to wait a bit. At this juncture in time, vegan alternatives have yet to gain popularity, and those are mashed plants. This is quite a step up. If you feel like making a difference don’t wait for this and reduce the .eat consumption altogether regardless of its origin.
This sounds like good news but what I don’t want is one big corporation replacing hundreds/thousands of worldwide farmers and having total control over the cost of selling this to consumers.
We need local individual owned stem cell meat farms.
It’d really become an art if it became accessible enough to do locally. Getting the right texture, marbling, tenderness, etc.
Like a craft brewery model for cultured meat? Sounds cool.
Exactly!
But it doesn’t work if it costs billions of dollars to start it up.
Kinda like how regional booze was an art before Anheuser-Busch and them
Bladerunner
Besides, there’s nothing that tastes quite like real grass-fed free range stem cells.
Thats just silly, what we need is to advance forward and transition away from private property since it is already hindering the development of productive forces.
Most of the production in the us already comes from 2-3 giant corporate farms. It is simply more effeciant.
Those farms receive immense subsidies as well. No, it’s not efficient, it’s just what the US economic system produces.
Production at big scale is always much more efficient than small scale production. The subsidies are there to keep the american food industry on top internationally because it is a very important industry for national security.
Good news, these farmers can start growing stuff to feed humans instead!
We do have a number of excellent meat alternatives now, which use relatively simple processing steps and legumes, wheat etc. as base material.
As such, I imagine, they will remain cheaper than lab-grown meat and if we can get past people’s reservations with them, I feel like they would offer a much more direct path for farmers to get paid, as well as the opportunity for various smaller companies to compete in doing that processing.
I’ve been waiting for that for so long. Just hope governments and people give it a fair chance instead of jumping rashly negative conclusions just because it is lab grown. So is beer, and cheese, and most other things we consume.
I mean, with modern sausages, it’s mostly trash or overpriced. They taste like they have 5% meat, 95% sawdust.
No idea where you get your sausages but look elsewhere
Italy’s politicians in a fantastically backward and utterly brain farted move has made “synthetic meat” outlaw, for study, production, sale and consume, like already some months ago, just to please the local (read: national) farmers lobby. Or at least they adverised as they did… forgive me I kinda lost hope and interst as well.
Gotta love the totally-not-neofascist Meloni government :(
I like the idea, and I hope it scales to be significantly cheaper than murder sausage
Is that what you call your penis now?
hot
give me vegan-friendly bacon and I’m in. Sausage is easy.
Properly mixing up fat and meat to make something like pork bellies is really really had.
Fantastic. I can’t wait to have cruelty free meat products
I’m not exactly what you would call concerned about meat as a food source. I’m fine with it. But anything that can break the need for industrial farming is a damn good thing imo.
I’m eager for a good product to come to market so I can at least try it. So far, there hasn’t been one that’s available that’s priced well enough to be a viable choice, nor that matches expectations of taste. Textures have gotten good though.
But I think a sausage format is a great place for cultured meats to break into because there’s a wide range of ingredients with different flavors already. We’re used to sausages being fairly varied in taste and texture, so adding a new type is less of a “new food” barrier. Tbh though, it’s gotta be better than veggie sausages, those are pretty meh at best.
Ok can it be translated to meat on the table with costs and impact being less than actual pig slaughtering? I wouldn’t even mind the taste being a little different
Still won’t stop the “alpha male” types from hating it because they base their entire personality around doing what they think wi make other people mad.
This won’t stop douchebags from being douchebags?
What the fuck does this have to do with the article?
the entire concept implies a way to eat meat without having to slaughter animals.
Cool. Maybe, soon, they can turn me into a sausage?
I was going to post a meme of Sosei Aizen from bleach as a Sausage Aizen but I can’t find it so you’ll have to settle for Bologna Invader Zim.
Lab-grown meat is the way we’re going to add long pork to our diets.
That’s already possible! You just need a good butcher
Or soylent green.
Ok but how long does it take to get the stemcells
Very relevant question that the article doesn’t answer unfortunately.
Just copying my answer from above. Not to say that this is what they’re doing for sure, but generally stem cell cultures these days are sourced once then replicated forever.
or does the pig, that takes 60 times longer to grow give you 10000x the meat?
