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posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 14 2018, @03:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-the-beef? dept.

Don't listen to Big Cattle — lab-grown meat should still be called "meat"

Lab-grown meat is on its way, and the government is trying to figure out how to regulate it. This week, the US House of Representatives [pdf] released a draft spending bill that proposes that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulate lab-grown meat and figure out how it should be labeled — which is a contentious topic since Big Cattle doesn't want it to be called "meat." Regulation is important, and there's plenty more to learn, but the USDA shouldn't be the only one regulating. And when the product comes to market, yes, it should be called "meat."

Traditional meat, of course, comes from animals that are raised and slaughtered. Lab-grown meat (also called "in-vitro meat," "cultured meat," or "clean meat") is made from animal stem cells grown in a lab. But because the stem cells are typically fed with a serum derived from the blood of calf fetuses, the product uses animal products and isn't vegan. Still, the pitch for lab-grown meat is that it saves animals and also helps the environment because lab-grown meat doesn't take much land or energy to grow. Plus, lab-grown meat doesn't directly create methane emissions, while methane emissions from cows accounted for 16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.

Because of the way that government agencies work, it hasn't even been clear who should regulate lab meat. The USDA traditionally regulates meat, while the US Food and Drug Administration regulates food safety and additives. The proposal that the USDA be in charge of regulation is in line with what the [pdf] National Cattlemen's Beef Association wanted, but some lab-meat advocates fear that USDA will be biased against them in favor of traditional meat. If the USDA will be regulating lab meat, it should at least collaborate with the FDA. There are no slaughterhouses for the USDA to inspect anyway, and the FDA has already been regulating food technology, like the genetically engineered salmon it approved. It makes the most sense for the two to work together.

Previously: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"

Related: Lab-Grown Chicken (and Duck) Could be on the Menu in 4 Years
Cargill, Bill Gates, Richard Branson Backed Memphis Meats Expects Meat From Cells in Stores by 2021
'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist Mulls 'Taboo Against Cannibalism' Ending as Lab-Grown Meat Improves


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  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday May 14 2018, @05:01AM (8 children)

    by captain normal (2205) on Monday May 14 2018, @05:01AM (#679430)

    Cause it isn't going to be green, who would eat green meat? I myself would have to be real hungry before I would be eating any Soylent Red. I'd be eating rice and beans and if I couldn't get beef from my usual sources, I'd be eating fish I catch in the ocean, chickens I raise in my yard, wild pig I or my friends get on our yearly wild pig hunt, or small game and the occasional deer that I manage to hunt down. Also the chickens give more eggs than we can eat. Glad I don't live in a big city where you have to eat whatever some Mac Company serves up.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by arslan on Monday May 14 2018, @05:42AM (2 children)

    by arslan (3462) on Monday May 14 2018, @05:42AM (#679433)

    My mate whom I've known for 20 years since college, started a fish farm about 10 years ago in a south east asian country - which I will not name. Fish is a very popular food in Asia. From what my mate tells me, I would avoid any fish from said country, and any 3rd world asian country, including his and he himself does as much. It is a race to the bottom in terms of price and the insane demands of the asian consumer wanting it cheap and in abundance. The industry feed the fishies shit/feces and in fish farms overpacked and rife with diseases. If you see any fish in your super market chain where it is imported from a 3rd world asian country, caveat emptor.

    I would definitely eat lab grown fish meat if that was the only alternative to fishies from such farms. If it taste and smell like fish and doesn't have any health side-effects, I don't see a problem with it.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Monday May 14 2018, @07:49AM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 14 2018, @07:49AM (#679467) Journal

      I would definitely eat lab grown fish meat if that was the only alternative to fishies from such farms.

      Until then, may I interest you in some escargots?
      Those bastards seem to have quite a high rate of conversion of the plants on my veggies patch into their meat.

      Fortunately, unlike other animals, one doesn't need to run fast to muster them.

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      • (Score: 2) by arslan on Monday May 14 2018, @11:18PM

        by arslan (3462) on Monday May 14 2018, @11:18PM (#679818)

        You're trying to be funny, but seriously I eat a lot of them growing up in asia, or at least a variation of them, we call them balitong [christmasrecipes.website], whenever I can afford it of course. We stir fry them. Yum yum.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 14 2018, @06:06AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday May 14 2018, @06:06AM (#679441) Journal

    The demand for meat is increasing worldwide, and particularly in places like India [livekindly.co]. Not everybody can live the lifestyle you are living. So the meat industry will be meating that growing consumer demand [worldwatch.org] (it ain't shrinking despite the apparent popularity [nytimes.com] of veganism). Lab-grown meat offers a number of potential benefits over livestock:

    • Easy to put a cultured meat factory close to urban centers, with no transport of livestock to the facility needed
    • Less water use, less land use, less energy use, less methane emissions
    • Ability to make meat using any DNA
    • No animals suffering, aside from this fetal serum which will probably turn out to be a nothingburger
    • (Likely) cleaner than meat-packing plants
    • Low/zero waste, cultured meat doesn't need to use cheap parts from the animal or bother supplying those extra animal parts to other industries

    It remains to be seen whether lab-grown meat will become cheaper than meat from livestock.

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    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @07:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @07:45AM (#679464)

      So the meat meet industry will be meating that...

      FTFY

      Ability to make meat using any DNA

      Huh! I'll give you some DNA from the pond-slime, make yourself some meat of that.

    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday May 14 2018, @08:51AM (2 children)

      by acid andy (1683) on Monday May 14 2018, @08:51AM (#679491) Homepage Journal

      The demand for meat is increasing worldwide, and particularly in places like India

      Nooo, why the fuck are they adopting a more western diet? Indian food is so much nicer! I would have hoped that the religious underpinnings of vegetarianism in India would have inspired a moral code as well but it sounds like that hasn't been passed on to the next generation. It's odd the stats changed that quickly though -- I'd like to see a graph but haven't found one yet.

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