The future of meat?

[Bonobo]

I'm posting this thread I posted originally to GD because it touched on scientific issues so I though some like to offer their comment.
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I had a disgusting thought today about the future. Anyone want to hear?

I have to share it because it's so disturbing.

I was thinking about how all the tuna in the ocean is poisoned with mercury and well, even if it weren't, we won't have any left soon... No more tuna sushi, maguro donburi, etc. Anyway, then I started thinking about how they were able to grow a rat's heart, grow meat in test tubes, genetic recombinations, human-animal hybrids.... etc. I was thinking about how the FDA unilaterally determined that eating/drinking clone meat/milk is fine, etc.

Then I started thinking about all the people in the world -maybe the only thing in abundance at some point, like Soylent Green.

What if they started using humans, you know poor people, as growth media for food. Hear me out: You could take fatty tuna cells (toro) and grow them on a big fat person's stomach and then remove it later. It wouldn't be canibalism because they would be TUNA cells...

Did I just have a terrible waking nightmare or is this our future?

OR should I just write a weird short story and purge my mind of this sick thought?

[lurky]

1. Nightmare.

Might make a good horror movie, though! :)

[Lasher]

2. I know how you feel.

You think the drugs will help and they just make things worse.

[Inquiringmind2]

3. The Future of Meat

Absolutely, write a book....couldn't be as bad as Cloverfield.

[Bonobo]

4. Welcome to DU!

What's Cloverfield and why, if I may ask, would you make your first response on DU to MY crazy little nothing post? I'm honored...

[Warpy]

5. Nightmare

Likely they will grow meat from stem cells, but it'll be grown in nice, stainless steel vats.

The present way meat is "grown" is appalling. Pork is produced in giant warehouses where the pigs can barely stand, let alone move around, and they're knee deep in feces. Anyone who lives near one of these "pork factories" can tell you about the ammonia stench from the settling ponds of pig waste.

Chickens are grown in warehouses. Their beaks are burned off as soon as they hatch so they won't be able to peck each other in overcrowded conditions and make the meat unattractive. They typically have a lifespan of about 6 weeks and by that time, the chicken house is packed wing to wing. They live in their waste until they're "harvested," and then the warehouse is swept out, new litter put down, and a new batch of beakless chicks installed.

Beef have a relatively good deal for a while unless they're male, in which case they're castrated ASAP to make them gentler and more able to put on loads of fat. They're generally allowed to graze for a year or two, and then they're taken to feed lots where they're crammed into pens, standing nearly knee deep in their own waste, eating fat producing corn for a few weeks before slaughter.

The more you know about where your meat comes from, the less of it you're motivated to eat and the more interested you become in humanely and organically grown meat in health food stores. It's more expensive, but meat should be a treat instead of a 3 meal a day staple. Your coronary arteries will thank you.

[lurky]

7. I'm vegetarian, but I don't see any ethical problem with

"meat from a vat". It's still pretty gross, though. And I'm sure the health concerns are the same. Still, there's no suffering that I can see.

[Warpy]

8. Right, no brain, no suffering.

I still eat little meat because I don't particularly enjoy it. I crave beef once a year when it starts to get cold. Its effect on my GI system convinces me not to eat it again for another year.

My fried chicken Jones at the beginning of the summer has been cured by Quorn.

[lurky]

9. The GI thing has actually turned me off to meat.

I accidentally ate some baked beans over the holidays that were cooked with pork. I didn't eat that much, but I definitely felt it. :(

[moggie]

11. Here's a thought

Once we're able to grow meat in a vat, we'll presumably be able to grow human meat in this way. I can't see vat-grown "long pig" ever becoming a mainstream product, but there are already people who enjoy seeking out all kinds of wierd foods: I can imagine some people being willing to try a little "ethical cannibalism", maybe just once, just so they could say they'd done it. Would it be ethical?

(Just so you know: I'm a veggie, and I'm not attracted to cannibalism in the slightest!)

[lurky]

12. You won't have to eat Hufu when

you're having one of those Hannibal Lecter moments!
:rofl:

[Bonobo]

13. Ethical cannibalism! That is good! I love it.

[moggie]

14. We'll need celebrity endorsements

In fact, we'll need celebrity stem cells. It'll be all the rage among the death metal crowd: you've bought their records, now eat their livers!

[Bonobo]

15. Something like this?

or:

[gtar100]

16. Exactly why I gave up eating meat

Life naturally feeds on life. But when it's done with such disdain and horror, it's only sickening. I can no longer support it just because I "like the taste".

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

6. Know yer meat

"Vat-grown" meat is the future, at least for extended space missions, or for a world where original resources are hard to come by. And we're already using animals as growth media:

[TZ]

10. I would say you have read a little bit too much horror fiction

What you are likely to see are the vat grown meat as has been said elsewhere...with humans though the idea of stem cells is to be able to grow new organs from scratch.