It's official. The first hamburger made from lab-grown meat has been eaten.

[backscatter712]

It's meat without the guilt. You can have your delicious burgers without having to slaughter a cow first. When done right, the process of growing meat with this new process will use less land, less energy and give off less greenhouse gasses than meat raised on the hoof the old fashioned way.

It's probably going to take a while before it gets turned into a commercial product, but now it's been done!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23576143

World's first lab-grown burger is eaten in London

The world's first lab-grown burger was cooked and eaten at a news conference in London on Monday.

Scientists took cells from a cow and, at an institute in the Netherlands, turned them into strips of muscle that they combined to make a patty.

Researchers say the technology could be a sustainable way of meeting what they say is a growing demand for meat.

Critics say that eating less meat would be an easier way to tackle predicted food shortages.

The burger was cooked by chef Richard McGeown, from Cornwall, and tasted by food critics Hanni Ruetzler and Josh Schonwald.

[Cleita]

1. Synthetic beef?

Will they call it True Beef?

[NuclearDem]

2. Overall, this is a good thing.

I probably won't end up eating it, just because I don't anything that comes from an animal, but if this works to help shut down factory farms and subsequently help feed people, it's good.

[Posteritatis]

6. Definitely a fantastic thing

Even leaving aside the issue of factory farms; raising meat for consumption in even the most ethical manners is still very expensive in terms of resources. Something that leads to quality food output, at a lower cost in land, water, etc., while also averting the problems of how animals are often treated in farms? That's a huge win all around.

[RebelOne]

7. It sure is a good thing.

I have been a vegetarian for 16 years, but have been having a craving for a hamburger or steak. I do eat dairy foods because the animal is not killed for those products. And if I know that no animal was killed for the hamburger or steak I am eating, I would definitely try this synthetic meat.

[DJ13]

3. Soylent Moo?

[Bay Boy]

4. Will there be continuing reports as it...

...continues through his digestive system?

[Arkana]

5. I'm hearing the Eureka theme playing in my head and I don't know why.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

8. I'm not sure what to think of this

N/T

[StopTheNeoCons]

9. I get complete amino acid profile from quinoa, meat of any kind is not necessary...nt

[donco]

10. Eat it

before it eats you.

[Bake]

11. NPR said it wasn't as juicy.

Maybe it needed A1.



Bake

[backscatter712]

12. The article said the tasters thought the meat was too lean.

It needed more fat to add flavor.

I suppose these are easily fixable problems - in fact, the people growing vat-meat would probably want low-fat and high-fat varieties of meat, and I'm sure the juiciness issue can be handled.

[KittyWampus]

13. the stupidity of lab grown meat> just moving food another step away from it's source to consumer.

the planet needs people to be closer to their food, not further away.

[NickB79]

14. I'll stick to grass-fed beef, thank you

The price tag on this makes $8/lb locally raised, grass-fed hamburger look like the dollar menu at McDonald's!

Frankly, I doubt this will be scaled up to be commercially viable for many, many years, so long as we keep subsidizing cheap grains like we do.