News and Views / San Francisco Vegetarian Society: Meat may be grown in the Lab

Gene Roddenberry once stated his faith in the future saying that "technology will save humanity."

"An international research team has proposed new techniques that may lead to the mass production of meat reared not on the farm, but in the laboratory.
Developments in tissue engineering mean that cells taken from animals could be grown directly into meat in a laboratory, the researchers say.

Scientists believe the technology already exists to directly grow processed meat like a chicken nugget.

The technology could benefit both humans and the environment.

With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply. And you could do it in a way that's better for the environment and human health.

The new techniques could also provide a dilemma for vegetarians.
Some may feel able to eat meat that has been grown without an animal being harmed."

Interesting that you never get an article in the news that say 'scientists say meat is bad for the environment' or 'scientists say meat is unhealthy for human consumption' but if you read inbetween the lines, that is exactly what this article says.

Will there be vegetarians who will eat this meat? I'm sure there will be. A new term may have to be invented for them. Ethically, I can't see anything wrong - no animal has been harmed. And yet, I can't see myself eating flesh once again.

In Star Trek, meat was produced without the animal, via the transporter 'nano-technology'. A famous quote from the show (TNG) is "we no longer enslave animals for food consumption." Maybe we'll be saying that a lot sooner than expected.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Scientists aim for lab-grown meat

Labels: ethics, science

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