MadSci Network: Agricultural Sciences
Query:

Re: why we don't already have lab grown meat?

Date: Fri Aug 17 11:46:18 2007
Posted By: Forrest Howell, Staff, none, none
Area of science: Agricultural Sciences
ID: 1187185747.Ag
Message:

Tiago,

In vitro meat production does seem to be possible. I was unable to find any good scientific articles concerning the process but listed below are two URLs which will elaborate on the process and its difficulties. The main drawbacks seem to be the cost associated with producing the meat and the quality issues of trying to mimic an extremely complicated natural process. The meat we consume is never strictly muscle tissue. There is fat, blood, connective tissue, etc that all contribute to the taste and texture of the meat. This would be very hard to replicate.

The meat must also pass to other hurdles if it is to be offered on the market; FDA regulations and public acceptance. I'm sure the FDA regulations could be met given the time and money required for testing but convincing the public at large to consume "artificial" meat could be much more difficult. As an example we can look at the public perception of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST). rBST is an artificial form of the naturally occurring Bovine Somatotropin horome (i.e. growth hormone). The dairy industry has used rBST for many years to increase milk production in healthy dairy cows. Growth hormones are species specific and therefore bovine growth hormones have no effect on humans. This not withstanding, many dairies have been forced to discontinue the use of rBST due to the public's concerns that it could cause health issues in humans. The producers of in vitro meat will be faced with the challenge of convincing these same people that meat tissue produced in a lab will not cause adverse health effects. This could be a daunting proposition.

As an aside, the articles listed discuss the possibility of eliminating the waste associated with live animal slaughter. It is important to note that very little is wasted when animals are killed for food and that the offal, hides/feather, bones, etc. are utilized in everything from pharmaceuticals to industrial supplies.

I hope to have at least partially answered your question and maybe a bioengineering/biochem expert on this site can elaborate on the technical issues involves in producing in vitro meat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat

http://www.new-harvest.org/article09102005.htm

Regards

Forrest

[Moderator's note: I asked Rafael Garcia to address this question from the perspective of technical hurdles to the in vitro production of meat. His answer is below. -SM]

Rafael Garcia, Faculty, Fats, oils and Animal Co-Products, USDA-ARS

Message:

I see two main roadblocks to in vitro meat:
-Economic: The traditional meat production system has been highly optimized. Livestock are fed diets made from inexpensive ingredients. Also, doesn't take a huge number of people to manage a feedlot of 1000 cattle, which may each yield 400 pounds of meat. Growing animal cells in a flask would be fairly expensive, by contrast. These types of cells are fed some very expensive ingredients. In fact, there are often some ingredients that come from animals - fetal calf serum is often included in the medium. Cell culture is also very sensitive to bacterial contamination, requiring it to be performed in carefully controlled conditions.

-Technical: If the in vitro muscle cells were produced by the usual cell culture techniques, I believe you could only produce a very thin layer of cells - this would hardly qualify as a steak! Producing a something like a whole muscle is what is called 'organ culture' and is significantly more difficult and expensive than just growing the thin layer of cells. A big problem here is the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the cells deep inside the muscle. In a real animal, this is accomplished by the circulatory system. I think people are developing ways to deal with these problems, but at the present it is the type of thing that is only realistic for medical applications.

Overall, I don't think that there are any unsolvable technical problems in the production of in vitro meat. Turning a technology like this into a profitable business, however, seems unlikely to me.


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