The biggest news this week is the unveiling and testing of the
first laboratory-grown hamburger - you can read all the details in
NPR's Long Awaited Lab-Grown
Burger Is Unveiled in London. In a nutshell Google cofounder
Sergei Brin donated $300,000 to fund the growth of a hamburger from
a few stem cells extracted from a cow's shoulder muscle. After
browning the burger in butter and sunflower oil, the two tasters
announced:
"'The texture, the mouthfeel has a feel like meat,'
Schonwald put it. 'The absence is ... fat. It's a leanness. But the
bite feels like a conventional hamburger. It's kind of an unnatural
experience [without condiments].' Rützler agreed the
burger was edible, but not delectable. 'It has quite some intense
taste, it's close to meat,' she said. 'I thought it would be
softer.'"
Apart from the taste, however, we have to
acknowledge that this makes us feel queasy. Proponents for this
development argue "that humans might one day be able
to produce large quantities of meat from very few animals is
potentially game-changing, especially for those deeply worried
about the environmental and animal welfare costs of industrial meat
production." However, like many scientific advances, one has to
wonder whether the producers are thinking through all the
potentially dramatic ramifications of taking over Mother Nature's
role. At the very least, we'd like to hear a discussion of possible
risks and safeguards occur at the same time as explaining the
virtues of this approach.
Photograph by David Parry, Reuters