Growing pork without the pig

by ricknight | June 2, 2007 at 09:17 am | 874 views | 4 comments

Another item from the "Ick" files...

UTRECHT, The Netherlands — Dutch researchers are trying to grow pork in a laboratory with the goal of feeding millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals.

"We're trying to make meat without having to kill animals," Bernard Roelen, a veterinary science professor at Utrecht University, said in an interview.

Although it is in its early stages, the idea is to replace harvesting meat from livestock with a process that eliminates the need for animal feed, transport, land use and the methane expelled by animals, which all hurt the environment, he said.

It's like a page from the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood

Flag this story

Upload

Make your good story a great story. Click here to add your photos & video to this story.

Crowd Power

Scan the web to add photos and videos to this story or add them from the NowPublic Archive.

jordan

at 11:04 on June 2nd, 2007

good stuff:

My brain tells me that lab-grown food is a good idea, but my stomach wants to push back from the table. Good stuff.

ricknight

at 14:03 on June 2nd, 2007

I can see the marketing campaign now.... "Lab Grown Franken-Furters" ™

Barry Artiste

at 16:28 on June 2nd, 2007

good stuff:

Good Stuff Rick, just throwing out a theory here, since pigs share
certain DNA aspects with humans, organs for example. One needs to ask, the DNA
modification in creating pigs by scientists
may be beneficial intitially. What concerns me is Mother Nature and Evolution's position on eating these pigs
and the possible human side effects of birth defects or new mutations, could this modified DNA attach
itself to Human DNA in some way. Just a theory of course, I am inclined
to agree with Jordan. Better to push away from the dinner table, before Mother Nature does it for you.

ScienceDave

at 19:23 on June 2nd, 2007

I haven't heard of passing DNA-rooted diseases through food unless it was virally mediated (protein transfer, yes - Mad Cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases). However, it does seem a bit unnatural to eat lab-meat. I'd be more inclined to pop back a few vitamins and pills packed full of amino acids.