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posted by martyb on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-can-you-get-any-pudding-if-you-don't...-what? dept.

Missouri has prohibited producers of meat alternatives, such as lab-grown/cultured meat and plant-based fake meats, from using the term "meat" to describe products not derived from harvested livestock or poultry:

On Tuesday, Missouri becomes the first state in the country to have a law on the books that prohibits food makers to use the word "meat" to refer to anything other than animal flesh. This takes aim at manufacturers of what has been dubbed fake or non-traditional meat. Clean meat -- also known as lab-grown meat -- is made of cultured animal tissue cells, while plant-based meat is generally from ingredients such as soy, tempeh and seitan.

The state law forbids "misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry." Violators may be fined $1,000 and imprisoned for a year.

[...] The Missouri Cattlemen's Association, which worked to get the state law passed, has cited shopper confusion and protecting local ranchers as reasons for the legislation. "The big issue was marketing with integrity and...consumers knowing what they're getting," said Missouri Cattlemen's Association spokesman Mike Deering. "There's so much unknown about this."

Turtle Island Foods, which makes "Tofurky", has sued the state:

On Monday, the company that makes Tofurky filed an injunction in a Missouri federal court to prevent enforcement of the statute, alleging that the state has received no complaints about consumers befuddled by the term "plant-based meats" and that preventing manufacturers from using the word is a violation of their First Amendment rights. Plus, it pointed out, "meat" also refers to the edible part of nuts and fruit.

The statute "prevents the sharing of truthful information and impedes competition," according to documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. "The marketing and packaging of plant-based products reveals that plant-based food producers do not mislead consumers but instead distinguish their products from conventional meat products." The co-plaintiff is the Good Food Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

Deering said he was surprised by the suit, because the primary target of the law was lab-grown meat.

Also at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Oregon Live.

Previously: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Regulation Coming to Lab-Grown Meat
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"

Related: FDA May Force Rebranding of Soy, Almond, et al. "Milks"


Original Submission

Related Stories

U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat" 80 comments

The U.S. Cattlemen's Association has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop an official definition for terms like "meat" and "beef", as plant-based alternatives to meats continue to grow in popularity and lab-grown/cultured meat may be coming soon:

Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are combining plant-based ingredients and science, rather than animals, to create fake-meat burgers and other products that taste like the real thing.

Now U.S. Cattlemen's Association is looking to draw a line in the sand. The association launched what could be the first salvo in a long battle against plant-based foods. Earlier this month, the association filed a 15-page petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling for an official definition for the term "beef," and more broadly, "meat."

"While at this time alternative protein sources are not a direct threat to the beef industry, we do see improper labeling of these products as misleading," said Lia Biondo, the association's policy and outreach director. "Our goal is to head off the problem before it becomes a larger issue."

[...] While these foods are commonly dubbed "fake meat," there's a little more to the meat-substitute market than that. The Good Food Institute, which advocates a sustainable food supply, breaks it down into two categories: clean meat and plant-based meat. Clean meat refers to "meat" grown in a lab from a small amount of animal stem cells. This kind of meat isn't on the market yet, but it's in development. Plant-based meat is anything that mimics traditional meat but is made mainly using plant ingredients.

Here's an idea: define "meat" for the Cattlemen's Association, then tax it with an exemption for "lab-grown meat".

Related: Lab-Grown Pork Closer to Reality
Lab-Grown Chicken (and Duck) Could be on the Menu in 4 Years
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Cargill, Bill Gates, Richard Branson Backed Memphis Meats Expects Meat From Cells in Stores by 2021
Meat Tax Proposed for Sake of Human and Environmental Health.


Original Submission

Regulation Coming to Lab-Grown Meat 25 comments

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


Original Submission

FDA May Force Rebranding of Soy, Almond, et al. "Milks" 76 comments

Soon, your soy milk may not be called 'milk'

Soy and almond drinks that bill themselves as "milk" may need to consider alternative language after a top regulator suggested the agency may start cracking down on use of the term.

The Food and Drug Administration signaled plans to start enforcing a federal standard that defines "milk" as coming from the "milking of one or more healthy cows." That would be a change for the agency, which has not aggressively gone after the proliferation of plant-based drinks labeled as "milk."

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb talked about the plans this week, noting there are hundreds of federal "standards of identity" spelling out how foods with various names need to be manufactured.

"The question becomes, have we been enforcing our own standard of identity," Gottlieb said about "milk" at the Politico event Tuesday. "The answer is probably not."


Original Submission

FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat" 14 comments

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved soy leghemoglobin as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for human consumption:

Last August, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the FDA hadn't stomached the company's previous GRAS application. The agency concluded that soy leghemoglobin—a protein found in the roots of soybean plants that Impossible Foods harvests from genetically engineered yeast and uses to simulate the taste and bloodiness of meat—had not been adequately tested for safety.

In the application, Impossible Foods argued that the iron-containing protein is equivalent to hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells and commonly consumed in meat. Thus, the protein was safe, the company concluded. It went as far as conducting studies in rats to back up the claim. But the FDA noted that soy leghemoglobin had never been used as an additive before, and the organization wanted data showing that the protein was safe and not an allergen specifically for humans.

[...] At the time, the decision was a searing blow to Impossible Foods, which up until then had fired up the appetites of investors and top chefs alike and savored glowing publicity. Since the company's founding in 2011, big names such as Bill Gates and Google Ventures served up more than $250 million in startup funds, and the impossible patty sizzled on the menus of such high-end restaurants as Momofuku Nishi in New York and Jardinière in San Francisco. The soy leghemoglobin was a big part of that hype, with the company touting it as its "secret sauce."

But the FDA's gut check didn't knock Impossible Foods off the market; it just left a bad taste. In fact, the company wasn't even required to submit its GRAS application to begin with due to the controversial way in which the FDA oversees food additives and GRAS designations. Under the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the 1958 Food Additives Amendment, the FDA allows food companies and their hired consultants to internally test and determine a GRAS designation of a potential new additive all on their own. They can start using it without getting approval from the FDA or even notifying the agency. The FDA only steps in after the fact if problems arise.

Impossible Foods' FAQ says "the heme molecule in plant-based heme is atom-for-atom identical to the heme molecule found in meat". Heme is a component of soy leghemoglobin consisting of an iron atom bound in a porphyrin ring.

Meanwhile, the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are continuing to fight over which agency will have jurisdiction over "cultured meat" (i.e. lab-grown animal cells for human consumption):

Meat Industry PR Campaign Bashes Plant-Based Meat Alternatives 58 comments

Plant-based burgers are "ultra-processed" like dog food, meat-backed ads say

A public-relations firm backed by meat producers has unleashed a savage marketing campaign that claims plant-based meat alternatives are unhealthy, "ultra-processed imitations" similar to dog food.

The campaign rolled out in recent weeks from the industry-funded firm Center for Consumer Freedom, according to The New York Times. So far, it has included full-page ads and opinion pieces in mainstream newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. All the marketing material raises health concerns about trendy meat alternatives, such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger.

One ad posed the question "What's hiding in your plant-based meat?" Another directed readers to take the quiz "Veggie Burger or Dog Food?"

In an op-ed, the managing director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, Will Coggin, labeled meat alternatives as "ultra-processed" foods and noted that a recent study led by the researchers at the National Institutes of Health linked ultra-processed foods to weight gain.

The negative marketing campaign comes amid soaring popularity of meat alternatives, which threaten to slice into the meat market's sales and profits. In recent months, big players in the meat industry had tried a different—some might say hypocritical—tactic to compete with the new comers—that is, they released their own lines of meat alternatives. Now, the industry wants consumers to think such alternatives are unhealthy.

Older stories:


Original Submission

Meatless "Beyond Burgers" Come to Fast Food Restaurants 58 comments

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Meatless 'Beyond Burgers' come to Carl's Jr. restaurants

The competition in lab-made veggie burgers is heating up. Beyond Meat has brought its burgers to more than 1,000 Carl's Jr. locations in the US, marking its Beyond's largest restaurant deal to date. Order a $6.29 Beyond Famous Star and you can eat a vegetarian (sorry vegans, there's American cheese) burg that tastes much like its conventional beef counterparts. You can also pay $2 to add a Beyond patty to other burgers on the menu. [...] You can already eat Impossible burgers of various sizes at White Castle, Hopdoddy, [and] Umami Burger

The veggie burgers won't be available at Hardee's (a nearly identical fast food chain operated by the same parent company). Sorry, "flexitarians".

Big Beef Prepares For Battle, As Interest Grows In Plant-Based And Lab-Grown Meats

The U.S. meat industry is gigantic, with roughly $200 billion a year in sales, and getting larger. But the industry faces emerging threats on two fronts: plant-based meat substitutes and actual meat grown in labs. Plant-based meat substitutes are a lot more, well, meaty than they used to be. They sear on the grill and even "bleed." They look, taste and feel in the mouth a lot like meat. Savannah Blevin, a server at Charlie Hooper's, an old-school bar and grill in Kansas City, Mo., says the vegetarian Impossible Burgers on the menu are popular with the meat-eating crowd. "I had a vegetarian actually turn it away, because it reminded them so much of meat, they sent it back," says Blevins. "It's delicious," she adds.

The industry that makes these products is taking off, growing 20 percent a year. "Business is booming," says Todd Boyman, co-founder of food company Hungry Planet. "We just can't keep up. We're actually having to expand our production facilities to keep up with the demand that's out there for this type of food."

[...] The meat industry is focused on shaping the regulatory environment for its new competitors, taking into account lessons learned from the rise of plant-based milks.

Previously: Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"

Related: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Missouri Regulates Use of the Word "Meat" by Food Producers


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:16AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:16AM (#728182)

    The big issue was marketing with integrity and...consumers knowing what they're getting

    Fair enough. How about prohibiting "pink slime", mechanically separated chicken, and other by-products from being labeled with the term "meat" too?

    • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:10AM (3 children)

      by bradley13 (3053) on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:10AM (#728195) Homepage Journal

      Well, yes. Meat should be defined as a product composed primarily of the tissue of slaughtered animals, which was removed intact from the carcass. "Primarily" required definition - some minor additives may be acceptable (like, sadly, the water injected into ham and bacon), but the threshold ought to be very high - 95% or more. "Intact" to eliminate grossness like "pink slime".

      However, the food industry is very good at getting its way, especially in the US. Just as an example, in the US "chocolate" only needs to contain 10% cocoa. AFAIK, the rest of the world requires 25% or more. Brown candy in the US is not chocolate, it's sugar that saw some cocoa beans from a safe distance.

      It's really about truth in labeling. "Soy milk" is not milk. "Soy meat" is not meat. Words have meanings, and for labeling purposes those meaning should be enforced.

      --
      Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Gaaark on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:06AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:06AM (#728218) Journal

        Wonder what they'll do about mincemeat, which CAN (and always USED to) contain meat but rarely does today.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:07AM (#728219)

        bradley13 is not real bradley13, I am sad to report. Read his ingredients closely.

      • (Score: 1) by exaeta on Friday August 31 2018, @01:14AM

        by exaeta (6957) on Friday August 31 2018, @01:14AM (#728521) Homepage Journal

        Here in the U.S. we call a lot of things chocolate. We also have specific labels for chocolate with high cocoa content (e.g. dark chocolate) v.s. low cocoa (e.g. white chocolate) so I would hardly call it deceptive.

        --
        The Government is a Bird
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by qzm on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:22AM (9 children)

    by qzm (3260) on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:22AM (#728186)

    Isnt it a basic human right to market soy/lentilwhatever pattied as 'meat' because, well, who needs a reason! Trump is satan!

    People should also be able to sell ground up cardboard mixed with ash and baked as cake!
    Battery acid and piss as chardonney!
    Normal tap water as pure spring mineral water from the alps! (oops, pretend I never said that)!
    Diesel as premium petrol!

    Or, just perhaps, since people have a pretty solid perception of what MEAT is, new names should be found for new products?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:42AM (1 child)

      by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:42AM (#728189)

      Trump is satan!

      I think you mean "Trump is seitan [thespruceeats.com]?" Easy mistake to make.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by Immerman on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:40PM

        by Immerman (3985) on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:40PM (#728273)

        Meaning he has a human-like texture, but none of the ethical concerns?

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:47AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:47AM (#728191)

      Cultured meat (muscle cells) is meat, but this law says it's not.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:28AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:28AM (#728196)

        Cells grown in a lab are cells grown in a lab. The process of getting to something often plays a defining role in what it is. For instance champagne versus sparkling wine.

        The distinction here is especially important since our bodies have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, and countless millions if we include ancestor species, to consume certain products. If e.g. a vegetarian would like to consume lab grown cells then I think they should absolutely be free to. And indeed if I see the generation after them seems to be sufficiently healthful then I might be happy to try it myself. But in the mean time I think there is a reasonably high chance of unforeseen consequences. And all I mean by this is that I think it is logical to imagine that consuming something that is similar, but different, could result in an effect that is different than consuming the original product. What will these side effects be? Who knows; they could even be positive! But as I quite enjoy the flavor and healthfulness of meat, I'm in no rush to replace it - and so people should be able to opt in to acting as guinea pigs, rather than being forced to do so as might occur if products that are not meat could labeled as such.

        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:47PM (3 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:47PM (#728276)

          You endure that "similar, but different" risk every time you eat beef, pork, or other domesticated meat (or any domesticated vegetables for that matter). We've fundamentally changed the nature of these organisms, so that their nutrient and hormone profiles barely resemble what we actually evolved to eat (and that's before you even get into all the hormones and antibiotics saturating most industrial-farmed animals).

          All you need to do is eat a selection of wild game to get a good sense of the flavor and texture differences associated with the changes we've made.

          Now, I'm all for requiring lab-grown meat to be labeled as such -but lets not pretend that the normal modern diet in any way resembles what we evolved to eat. We're already guinea pigs.

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:22PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:22PM (#728288)

            All you need to do is eat a selection of wild game to get a good sense of the flavor and texture differences associated with the changes we've made.

            ...and then after you're done grimacing at the gamy taste, you can go back to lovely modern steak, bacon, etc. Nitrates and all. Mmmm, bacon. :)

            Or, IOW, not all such change is bad.

            ...their nutrient and hormone profiles barely resemble what we actually evolved to eat...

            We didn't evolve to get medical care for cancer, either, yet it lengthens our lives and improves their quality. Modern meat likewise: we actually live longer and stronger and healthier, even barring the statistical twist that infant mortality used to throw in there. There's no actual need to get all that concerned about this.

            And as far as cultured meat goes... can't wait. There will no longer be any need to kill or mistreat any feeling being in order to enjoy a fine steak, etc.

            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday August 31 2018, @03:26PM

              by Immerman (3985) on Friday August 31 2018, @03:26PM (#728781)

              Personally I love the flavor - tastes like something that used to be alive instead of the flavorless fat-paste typical of farmed animals.

              And nutritionally it's categorically NOT better - as a rule domesticated meat is far fattier and less nutritious than wild. Just as domesticated plants are far less nutritious and more carbohydrate rich.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:09PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:09PM (#728903)

            Completely agreed, and I think the state of American healthfulness is a product of our decision to increasingly move away from what we evolved to eat. This supports the point. If people want to eat this stuff -- more power to them, but it should be optional. And optionality necessitates proper labeling.

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:00PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:00PM (#728326) Journal

      Isnt it a basic human right to market soy/lentilwhatever pattied as 'meat' because, well, who needs a reason! Trump is satan!

      Nobody said that. And, we understand the difference between state and federal governments.

      But, it's good to know your persecution complex is in tip-top shape.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by RamiK on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:52AM (11 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:52AM (#728215)

    I don't know about you, but all other things being equal, I'd opt for cultured bovine meat over real cow meat for the simple fact it's cleaner to grow stuff in vats than have them walk around in the fields covered in shit and eating god knows what... And it's not like I'm a vegetarian or something. I don't even eat my pees and carrots when mom isn't looking!

    Seriously I haven't got a clue what they're thinking. You don't see people gut out lambs for gastric digestive juices to make yogurt or spoiling flour and water by waiting for the fungus to form for baking bread and brewing beer. So if people prefer eating yogurt from cultured bacteria and bread / beer from cultured yeast already, isn't it a really bad move for the cow farmers to want their product distinguishable from the cultured stuff? I mean, Americans can't stand seeing people not wearing gloves and hair nets in food preparation... What would happen when the cultured meat folks start running "This is how cows are raised; This is how we make cultured cow cells" ads?

    Weird.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:09AM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:09AM (#728220)

      I don't even eat my pees

      Eat, or rather, drink your pees, RamiK, and quit yer bitching. Good enough for Howard Hughes, good enough for you.

      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:09PM (3 children)

        by hendrikboom (1125) on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:09PM (#728305) Homepage Journal

        Spackman's law:
                Eat solids
                Drink liquids
                Breathe gases
        Don't get them mixed up.

        • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:26PM (2 children)

          by Osamabobama (5842) on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:26PM (#728333)

          Don't get them mixed up.

          In this case, it appears that 'pee' and 'pea' are getting mixed up. The latter is a vegetable often served with carrots, while the former is a colloquial term for urine.

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          Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
          • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:38PM (1 child)

            by RamiK (1813) on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:38PM (#728407)

            No matter since I avoid both. I hope. What Taco Bell passes for Diet Cola might very well qualify as piss by some standards...

            Regardless, people comment about my atrocious spelling all the time and it only gotten worse over the years so as far as I'm concerned the joke's on them for wasting their time on a hopeless cause :D

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            • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:05PM

              by Osamabobama (5842) on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:05PM (#728472)

              ...the joke's on them for wasting their time ...

              But the time's not wasted if there's a joke involved.

              --
              Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:05PM (4 children)

      by pTamok (3042) on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:05PM (#728232)

      You don't see people [...] spoiling flour and water by waiting for the fungus to form for [...] brewing beer.

      Cough.

      Lambic [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:25PM (3 children)

        by RamiK (1813) on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:25PM (#728267)

        Hate to burst your bauble but Lambic moved to cultured strains half a decade ago ( http://craftbeercellar.com/blog/blog/2013/03/06/a-tale-of-two-bretts-bruxellensis-and-lambicus/ [craftbeercellar.com] ). And btw, I actually have a friend that brews those and he says the cultures are much better than the "wild strains".

        More importantly, they weren't really wild to begin with since the region been culturing them indirectly by "feeding" them only when they performed well. That is, poor tasting strains concentrated in certain areas were starved out since the locals didn't continue brewing there. Cultured by invisible hand if you will...

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        • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:29PM

          by RamiK (1813) on Thursday August 30 2018, @02:29PM (#728268)

          bubble... too much Darkest Dungeon.

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        • (Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:07PM (1 child)

          by pTamok (3042) on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:07PM (#728328)

          Lambic-style maybe, but in the EU, Lambic is a protected designation, and AFAIK requires that the beer has undergone spontaneous fermentation.

          Pop this into your translation engine of choice:

          https://www.horal.be/lambiek-geuze-kriek/juridische-bescherming [horal.be]

          There is also this paper: PLOS|ONE: The Microbial Diversity of Traditional Spontaneously Fermented Lambic Beer [plos.org]

          • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:26PM

            by RamiK (1813) on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:26PM (#728392)

            Lambic is a protected designation

            As Camembert was. As Champagne is. As Meat will be... Look, I'm more interested in the quality of the produce rather than the local industrial protections the EU and US deploy to trade war as years go by. Would some people keep to traditional practices despite superior industrial techniques thanks to these protectionist nonsense? Sure. Would it be over quality? Never. It's always the industrial processes that end up being best. Sure, there's more room for fraud with modern processes. But that just means you need more regulations and oversight. And it's not like traditional producers don't end up exploiting new techniques to cheat as well. Look up how they fill up meat with water and such.

            So, I'm sticking with my original statement. Should it succeed, people won't just get used to. They'll prefer it. And farmers distinguishing between their product and what will end up as the superior product are just doing themselves a disfavor in the long run.

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:29PM

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:29PM (#728249) Homepage
      There are beers brewed using nothing but the yeast that floats around in the air. For example, in Pajotenland, where lambic is from, and brettanomyces and lactobacillus are king. And the rich character of old ales was caused by wild yeasts too (same strain, Brettanomyces, named after Britain because it was isolated from an old ale). Of course, there are risks, but the free market has ensured that those with the favourable terroir have a better chance of succeeding.
      --
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @12:24PM (#728237)

    Fish is neither livestock nor poultry yet it is meat.

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:59PM

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday August 30 2018, @01:59PM (#728255) Journal

    Do what the producers of Waterworld et. al. did. Beat them at their own game. [smeat.net]

    --
    This sig for rent.
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:31PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:31PM (#728313)

    Seems like they are trying to avoid a lawsuit. Like they put rat poison in it or something. Somebody says "Hey, this ain't butter!" They can say "We never said it was. We just said we couldn't believe it wasn't! So grease up your feet and take a walk, asshole!"

    -with apologies to Richard Jeni, RIP

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:42PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:42PM (#728337)

    So game is no longer meat in Missouri?

    • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:29PM

      by wonkey_monkey (279) on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:29PM (#728397) Homepage

      Does hunted meat ever end up in the consumer market foodchain?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:01PM (3 children)

    by ilsa (6082) on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:01PM (#728416)

    How exactly is lab-grown meat not meat? I can understand the plant stuff cause that's definitely not meat, but the lab-grown stuff is literally meat, made from cultured animal cells.

    This is statute is awfully arbitrary and very poorly thought out. No surprise it's being challenged.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:04PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:04PM (#728445)

      This is basically getting ahead of the people who mix it then call it meat.

      It is basically how we ended up with USDA and FDA. People were mixing all sorts of things together and calling it cheese or milk.

      This is probably an instance where someone was calling something it was not and the USDA/FDA was a bit behind. Also food laws are not uniform across the united states. They can vary state to state and city to city.

      This is unfortunately terribly common in the food industry. See the many names of sugar. Most people would call it fraud. But it is not technically against the law.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 31 2018, @04:56AM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday August 31 2018, @04:56AM (#728619) Journal

        Top-tier lab-grown meat could become superior in quality to any traditionally harvested meat. No need to throw in low quality parts if you don't grow them in the first place. But there are various forms of pink slime out there right now, and they are still considered meat under the law.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:15PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @07:15PM (#728910)

          Much of what you know as meat is not just the flavor/nutrients from the cells, but from how the animals lived. For instance there is a substantial difference in flavor between free range and caged/fed chickens. And similarly the texture of meats tend to be reflective of the lifestyle of the animal that it is harvested from.

          These cells grown in labs will have substantial additional additives, flavorings, colors, and processing added to try to mimic the flavor/color/texture/etc of real meat. They're never going to become superior to the 'real' thing, which is really another argument for them carving out their own niche rather than trying to act as a replacement for meat. If people want to eat lab grown cells then more power to them, and it's entirely possible people could develop a pallet for these products even without them attempting to mimic the flavors and textures of meat.

  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday September 03 2018, @11:20PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) on Monday September 03 2018, @11:20PM (#730020) Homepage Journal

    When I visited England, a few years ago, I discovered burgers containing vegetarian patties.
    They were delicious.
    There was no attempt whatsoever to imitate meat to claim it was a meat substitute, or to emulate the flavour of meat.
    Just patties made of vegetables, and they were delicious.

    -- hendrik

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