The other day I was eating a delicious hamburger, the news was on in the background and I happened to look over, noticing a photo of a pale, circular item. The cutline at the bottom of the screen under the photo simply stated that for the first time ever, scientists had grown a hamburger in a test tube.
I sat there, continuing to eat my hamburger, after witnessing this very inedible looking picture on the T.V. of this grey-ish, rubbery looking round thing. Food critics in London were preparing to dive in and taste the first laboratory grown hamburger. I was slightly unhappy to have chosen that day to have a hamburger for lunch to say the least.
The test tube hamburger, known as the Frankenburger (playing with the name of Mary Shelley's popular character Frankenstein), was created in the Netherlands from cells of a cow, which were grown into a hamburger patty thanks to inventor, Professor Mark Post.
Cooked by a Cornwall chef, Richard McGeown, it was London food critics Hanni Ruetzler and Josh Schonwald who were given the privilege of eating the burger, which had been coloured red with the addition of beet root juice.
According to the critics it tasted very much like any other hamburger, though it was much more lean and a little less juicy. As I began to read more about the development I was both disgusted and intrigued.
In a world where people are concerned about green house gas emissions, land use, and animal rights maybe this is where the world is headed. Not only is it a solution in this sense, there are countless people around the world who are starving and this could possibly be used as a way to feed people if able to be grown on a large scale.
Yet, even as I write about the pros of the new development my stomach twists and turns at the thought. Ultimately it is beef, it was grown from cells of a slaughtered cow, and DNA proves that it is beef.
According to BBC, the cells are taken from muscle tissue, given nutrients and growth-promoting chemicals, and allowed to grow for three weeks. This produces a small strip of muscle, which is then collected and froze, only to be thawed when enough strips are created to be made into a patty and cooked.
Apparently, at the moment, scientists are only able to develop small pieces of meat because an artificial circulatory system would be needed to grow the strips any larger.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) feels this is a step towards ending animal cruelty in mass produced meat, while also conserving water and limiting greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon.
One day, this may be the case, but currently the production of this new form of "meat" is extremely expensive and not sustainable as a mass produced commodity, which to be honest I'm not all that upset over.
Growing up I was a very picky eater, but now I'll try almost anything. I've eaten traditional Canadian meat, kangaroo hamburgers, and have even swallowed a worm on a dare a few years ago; but, for some reason meat grown in a lab makes me turn up my nose. Though this is probably just me continuing to be picky, I think I'd simply prefer to eat naturally produced meat.
Though I find it quite disgusting to think about, if offered a chance to try it I would likely take the opportunity. Yet, whether or not it tasted the same as a traditional hamburger I'm not convinced I would be able to make that transition. There's just something that seems wrong about eating such an item grown in a lab, though I'm sure throughout history there have been similar thoughts about different ways the world has progressed, yet it has never been something quite like this.
Do you think you'd give it a try?
