Recently in London, the world’s first lab-grown hamburger was eaten. The process for producing the hamburger involves taking stem cells from cows and growing them in a solution of nutrients and growth promoting chemicals. Over several weeks this creates little pieces of muscle tissue that are then combined into a patty that can be cooked like a regular hamburger patty. More information can be found here.
I personally find this disturbing. Why would anyone even think about creating a burger in a lab? Perhaps it is to say you can or maybe someone likes playing god? I don’t know exactly, but some of the reasons given by one of the researchers include a growing demand for meat worldwide and a more ‘sustainable’ process of producing meat. Apparently I am not in the know, but I was not aware of any meat shortages and a diet heavy on meat is not best either. The best way to produce meat is not on a huge farm or in the lab where you need to add so many unnatural things (antibiotics, hormones, growth factors, etc.). The best way is the natural way, with the animals eating what they naturally would eat.
You cannot imitate what nature does in the lab! While you may get something that feels similar and looks similar (after adding other colorings), it is not the same. We still do not understand all the many details in how animals and cells function. Don’t get me wrong, we understand many things but how often has the prevailing thought changed, especially on a micro level?
What effects would this synthetic meat have years down the road? What chemicals are needed to even allow this process to happen? I think we too often allow unnatural foods (GMO, processing, etc.) into our food supply without knowing the long-term effects. This seems to me that we are headed in the wrong direction when it comes to our food supply.
To be healthy the best thing to eat is mostly fresh organic fruits and vegetables, meats that are produced on a natural diet (grass fed beef, free range chickens), and limit highly processed foods as much as possible. A lab-grown burger seems pretty highly processed to me. If you would like help with eating a more natural diet, contact me and I can help point you in the right direction.
