A pound of flesh
Several journals have been pushing the story of "test-tube burgers:" growing muscle tissue (aka meat) using stem cells harvested from farm animals:
...[the funding] was used to fund a consortium that would aim to show that stem cells could be taken from farm animals, cultured and induced to become skeletal muscle cells. The team included a representative from meat company Meester Stegeman BV, and top scientists at three Dutch universities. Each university studied different aspects of in vitro meat production. Scientists at the University of Amsterdam focused on producing efficient growth media; a group at Utrecht worked on isolating stem cells, making them proliferate and coaxing them into muscle cells; and those at Eindhoven University of Technology attempted to “train” the muscle cells to grow larger. The scientists were able to grow small, thin strips of muscle tissue in the lab-stuff that looked like bits of scallop and had the chewy texture of calamari-but several obstacles remained to commercial-scale production. “We gained knowledge; we knew a lot more, but we still didn’t have [something that tasted like] a T-bone steak that came from a petri dish,” says Peter Verstrate, who represented Meester Stegeman in the consortium and now works as a consultant.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=inside-the-meat-lab
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/18/136402034/burgers-from-a-lab-the-world-of-in-vitro-meat?ps=cprs
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_specter
http://invitromeat.org/images/Papers/invitro%20meat%20economics%20study%20v5%20%20march%2008.pdf
http://www.new-harvest.org/img/files/Invitro.pdf
This approach opens its own Pandora's box: if ANY meat can be grown, it can be human flesh, too. Actually, it might be the simplest tissue to grow given the previous biomedical experience and investment. Are there secular ethical objections to consumption of lab-grown human meat? I do not think so.
It is easy to make fun of the Old testament with its dietary restrictions, but short of such articulated prohibitions cannibalism will be back, this time in its most potent and undefeatable form.
PS. I was reminded that this situation is described in Clarke's short story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_of_the_Gods_(short_story)
...[the funding] was used to fund a consortium that would aim to show that stem cells could be taken from farm animals, cultured and induced to become skeletal muscle cells. The team included a representative from meat company Meester Stegeman BV, and top scientists at three Dutch universities. Each university studied different aspects of in vitro meat production. Scientists at the University of Amsterdam focused on producing efficient growth media; a group at Utrecht worked on isolating stem cells, making them proliferate and coaxing them into muscle cells; and those at Eindhoven University of Technology attempted to “train” the muscle cells to grow larger. The scientists were able to grow small, thin strips of muscle tissue in the lab-stuff that looked like bits of scallop and had the chewy texture of calamari-but several obstacles remained to commercial-scale production. “We gained knowledge; we knew a lot more, but we still didn’t have [something that tasted like] a T-bone steak that came from a petri dish,” says Peter Verstrate, who represented Meester Stegeman in the consortium and now works as a consultant.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=inside-the-meat-lab
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/18/136402034/burgers-from-a-lab-the-world-of-in-vitro-meat?ps=cprs
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_specter
http://invitromeat.org/images/Papers/invitro%20meat%20economics%20study%20v5%20%20march%2008.pdf
http://www.new-harvest.org/img/files/Invitro.pdf
This approach opens its own Pandora's box: if ANY meat can be grown, it can be human flesh, too. Actually, it might be the simplest tissue to grow given the previous biomedical experience and investment. Are there secular ethical objections to consumption of lab-grown human meat? I do not think so.
It is easy to make fun of the Old testament with its dietary restrictions, but short of such articulated prohibitions cannibalism will be back, this time in its most potent and undefeatable form.
PS. I was reminded that this situation is described in Clarke's short story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_of_the_Gods_(short_story)