WHAT IF...Meat could be grown in laboratories without harming animals?

Exhibit at the WHAT IF... Exhibition in the Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin in 2009
Dressing the Meat of Tomorrow, 2007 by James King

Recent advances in tissue engineering have enabled us to grow meat without the expense, cruelty and traditions of rearing the whole animal. It is now possible to grow edible meat from a small sample of animal tissue. This project examines how we might choose to give shape, texture and flavour to this new sort of food in order to better remind us where it came from.
The mobile animal MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) unit scours the countryside looking for the most beautiful examples of cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock. Once located, the creature is scanned from head to toe, creating accurate cross-sectional images of its inner organs. --- The most interesting and aesthetically pleasing examples of anatomy are used as templates to create moulds for the in-vitro meat (we wouldn't choose to eat the same old boring parts that we eat today). The result is a satisfyingly complicated and authentic form of food.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Exhibition
• Science
• Gallery
• WHAT
• IF
• Meat
• could
• be
• grown
• in
• laboratories
• without
• harming
• animals
• Dressing
• the
• of
• Tomorrow
• James
• King

[SleepingHog]

Why now make a culture steak look like a real steak?

[GregoryCulverSmith]

nice project, i think i would have been more interesting to make something completely different from the animal. Why take inspiration from an MRI scan, when the material has become completely seperated from the animal. It is no longer an animal product. hmmm? Interesting project.

p.s i hate it when people say tissue like Ti-ssssss-u. It's ti-SH-ue ... SH! :D

[papasimian]

This is a topic I have thought about rather often. I like "some" meat with my meal, but not alot of it. I believe, if this technologic breakthrough came to fruition, I would prefer eating it and stop the inhumane methods by which meat is produced now. Yup!

[Valmarith]

1: Water can be recycled and the ocean is a sustainable water supply regardless of the climate. With Desalination massive droughts such as those predicted to strike the United State's mid west within the next few decades can be offset.

2: It does not matter if the mechanism used to convert carbon to oxygen comes from nature or an inventor, what matters is that the mechanism is predictable, controllable, and sustainable.

3: The point is to be independent of nature's hospitality towards life.

[Valmarith]

Not in 2012 and not with zombies no, but the scenario is not a fictional scenario. A magnitude 7 earthquake is predicted to strike the San'Andreas fault within the next forty years, the Yellowstone caldera has already risen displacing lake waters and causing small tremors in the Yellowstone region, and there is a small but significant risk that the next earthquake will destabilize the Volcano as the sliding continental plate displaces magma.

By the way I am not talking about magic technology.

[unclesonnyonutube]

there is no apocalyptic zombie war coming and 2012 is going to be just like any other year. So this fictional scenario you are conjuring in your mind will never happen. The demise of mankind will come slowly as we devour all of our resources and overpopulate the earth.

By the way, this oxygen producing bacteria and plants you speak of are things provided by NATURE and require WATER to survive.. If you depend on the ocean then you depend on nature.

[Valmarith]

By the way there are bacteria which produce oxygen and could be cultivated along with indoor plants to clean and recycle the air, and we have long been able to build machines to convert CO2 into Oxygen. It is also possible to recycle and purify water, condense air into water, and create water out of the proper gasses. Desalination technology in particular can ensure an indefinite water supply as long as the oceans are wet.

;)

[Valmarith]

None of that.

A super volcanic eruption will trigger global earthquakes and tsunamis, it will cause fine ash as jagged as asbestos to choke everything within a 200 kilometer radius, the storms triggered by the eruption will travel across continents bringing ash contaminated rain, ash and gas ejected into the upper atmosphere will darken the sky world wide and plunge the world into an ice age. Food sources will be exhausted, survivors will starve.

This sort of technology provides the answer

[unclesonnyonutube]

what is this crazy nonsense you are spouting?

some kind of fictional bible quote or some conspiracy nut jibber jabber?

sounds to me like some wacky scientology shit coming from a superstitious fruitcake.

It is impossible to live apart from nature even in big cities... because nature provides water and oxygen, the two most important things to sustain life... neither of which can be grown or reproduced in a lab, so good luck pencil-neck!

[Valmarith]

The sky shall turn black with ash, rivers will be poisoned by sulfurous rain. The earth will open up and swallow cities whole, and the waters of the oceans shall crash down upon the ruins. There will be a great famine and the air will be as asbestos. The world will be encased in centuries of darkness and ice.

All who depend on the soil for sustenance will perish, all who depend on the sun's light for warmth will know cold death, only those who at last live apart from nature will survive.