Features - QOTW: Would you eat a lab-grown burger?

[Noxvayl]

It would depend on what they add to this more than anything else. I doubt they would get the taste right but in an effort to do so I suspect what they end up adding would not be suitable for consumption. So I wouldn't eat it, at least not at first.

[harryj1995]

I would as long as it tastes like a real burger and doesn't cost more than a real one

[Percy1983]

Sure why not, with that I am still trying to get my hands on a horse burger, better for you than beef and not all that different in taste it would seem so why not.

[unilever20]

NO. I will go still natural.

[nibbler]

No way would I eat Lab grown burger, are there not any other worthwhile projects these scientists could be working on, rather than creating lab grown burgers.

I think you've missed the point. The amount of land which would be freed up for growing staple foods would allow the world to support not just its current population but an even higher one.

As a side note it's a worthwhile exercise in cell culturing which, if you believe that growing organs etc for transplants is a good idea, is relevant in its own right - if there's commercial interest in such projects it will only speed up the scientific development of these techniques.

[Bhavv]

No way would I eat Lab grown burger, are there not any other worthwhile projects these scientists could be working on, rather than creating lab grown burgers.

Because ending world hunger is not a worthwhile project?

[Spreadie]

Would you eat a lab-grown burger?

Absolutely.

Do any of you think it would be any worse than the crap you eat that they don't tell you about?

[aramil]

Absolutely.

Do any of you think it would be any worse than the crap you eat that they don't tell you about?

This ^

[minicale]

I am vegetarian so no also it looks like it is made out of worms.

[HSK]

I'm really hungry at the moment, so I could do with one of these asap.

In a brioche bun, with lettuce, gherkins, red onion, sweet sun-blush tomato, and mozzarella cheese.

With a side of triple cooked chips.

Hmm yum.

[mmh]

This opens up the whole "celebrity meat" debate... I watched a movie last year [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_%28film%29] that touches on this very idea....

Interesting proposition... not only begs the question would you eat human engineered flesh/meat... but who would you choose to eat? (celebrity)...

[zap117]

So much of our food is genetically modified as it is so I don't see why not. In fact, since it is made from scratch we might not have to worry about things such as BSE anymore, as long as the samples are taken from healthy cows. But things like this will contribute almost nothing to world hunger in the next couple decades or so. What's more important right now is getting more countries into the 21st century and stabilizing population growth rates.

[NecronomicoN]

I will resort to cannibalism before I ever eat lab-grown meat. I won't even think twice about it.

I do want to exterminate cattle though, and replace them with deer. Or camel. Wish we'd been more diligent with regulating whaling. Sucks that they diminished so badly because of the craze for whale oil. Whale meat is awesome. (Norway here)

I don't/won't eat fast food. I don't eat "microwave" food. I won't eat yogurt. I'm old-fashioned.

A meal without meat is not a meal; it's a snack.

[alpha channel]

Can't see why not, we've been diddling with plant DNA for centuries (cross fertilising/breeding different strains as well as more direct methods) and we eat those without even thinking. As stated in the article they need to get some fat into the mix (this after all does actually add to the taste as well as making it juicier) as by all accounts it was a tad lean.

This is a simple evolution of our food chain that is designed to make feeding our growing population more sustainable (not too dissimilar to vertical gardens for food production in so far as it is a different avenue of production aided by science) with the side benefit that it reduces the need to raise and cull quite so many animals.

Soylent Green on the other hand...

[AETAaAS]

I seem to fall in line with many of the members here.

Lab grown meat might be safer than meat that is slaughtered in god knows which country, transported miles then put into food products. Cultured meat could avoid things like chemical contaminants, BSE, prion diseases and so on.

[Meowmatt]

If it tasted the same and didn't have any nasty chemicals in it then I probably would give it a try.