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115

What do you think of imitation and lab-grown meats? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Recently tried an Impossible burger and nuggets and thought that if nobody told me it wasn't meat, I'd have thought the patty was made out of a weird kind of meat, rather than make a connection with the taste and texture of plants. Honestly, I might not complain if that was the only kind of "meat" I could have for the rest of my life.

Well, maybe I'd miss bacon.

I've yet to find the opportunity to try lab-grown meat, but I for sure would like to try it out and don't see much wrong with it as long as it's sustainable, reasonably priced, and doesn't have anything you wouldn't expect in a normal piece of meat.

Also, with imitation and lab-grown options, I'd no longer have to deal with the disgust factor of handling raw meat (esp. the juices) or biting into gristle. I'll happily devour a hot dog, but something about an unexpected bit of cartilage gives me a lingering sense of revulsion.

OQB @monovergent@lemmy.ml

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[–] Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I do not believe it is possible for cultured meat to ever be cheaper than industrially farmed meat. An animal as an integrated system has too many inherent efficiency advantages over a lab culture, even an industrially-scaled lab culture.

Animals have immune systems. Lab cultures have to be grown in a sterile environment, which increases costs.
Animals have digestive systems and can extract only the needed nutrition from common plant materials. Lab cultures have to be fed pre-digested and carefully proportioned nutrients, which increases costs.
Animals have extensive circulatory systems that efficiently get nutrients to cells and remove their waste. Lab cultures are centrifuged, which doesn't scale as well.
Animals have integrated waste processing and excretion systems. Lab cultures have to run external kidney loops, which not only increase costs but are less efficient.

Cultured meat will come down in price, maybe from 10x animal meat to 2-3x, but it's always going to be a novelty/luxury and will never compete on price as long as industrial animal farming practices are legal.

[–] SorryImLate@piefed.social 6 points 3 days ago

I agree there are still technical challenges ahead, I'm just optimistic about innovation. There are a lot of companies investing heavily in this field, so there must be many technical experts who are similarly optimistic.

I'd also like to point out that current agricultural practices are heavily subsidised. Plus there are the unpaid environmental costs. If agricultural subsidies were no longer applied, and all businesses had to start paying an emissions tax, so that consumers paid the actual cost of farming meat, any financial comparison to cultured meat would look very different.

I don't think it's going to happen in the next 5 years, but 15 years from now? Maybe.