Test Tube Meat

Recently a scientist by the name of Mark Post helped create a “test tube” beef burger. The burger was grown in a solution of nutrients and cost about 330,000 dollars to make. The burger was created by taking muscle cells from a cow and growing them into tissue. The meat had to be dyed to make it look like real beef. The meat contains no fat and is disease free. The meat was made in the Netherlands at Maastricht University. It was served to two volunteers and was flavored with egg powder and bread crumbs. The volunteers said that it tasted similar to regular beef, but it was not as juicy because of the lack of fat. This will lead to further research and we could see “test tube” meat in the markets in 10 to 20 years. PETA has even offered a 1 million dollar reward to the first person to create lab grown chicken. There is a long way to go in this field and it could lead to a source of food in the future.

I think this could be beneficial to the world’s food problems in the future. That is if the cost can be substantially lowered. One of the big problems I see with this type of product would be ethical issues and the fact that eating lab grown meat is kind of creepy. The fact that the meat contains no fat is also a big benefit. No fat means that the meat would be much healthier. Another benefit is the fact that that this meat is much more sterile so there is little to no change of pathogens getting into the meat. This means that cooking completely would be less of an issue. I still wonder if the body’s digestive tract will respond well to the meat. Overall this seems like a good thing for future food