Test-Tube Burger: Stem-Cell Hamburger 'Ready by Fall 2012'

Growing the Perfect Test-Tube Burger

Get ready for the test-tube burger: a hamburger whose ground beef was grown from a cow's stem cells. No factory farm, no abattoir required. It's been done: Mark Post from the University of Maastricht has grown strips of pig tissue, establishing proof of concept.

Speaking at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Mark Post said that his lab will produce an actual product by October 2012 that "looks, feels and hopefully tastes like meat."

One suspects that Post wouldn't like the term "Frankenburger", but the monicker is inevitable.

Test-Tube Burgers: Not on the Dollar Menu Yet

A stem-cell burger ain't cheap: the first one will cost around £220,000 ($347,640). The idea, of course, is for the economy of scale to kick in, making test-tube burgers viable for sale to the public.

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Producing meat is very expensive, in terms of operating costs, environmental compromises, and waste production. Imagine if factory farms could be replaced by labs: "meat production" would no longer be a euphemism but an accurate description of the process.

A bacon assembly-line.

This is also an interesting development for vegans who eschew (as opposed to chew) meat products to avoid contributing to the suffering of animals. What happens when the meat isn't cut from a sentient being?

The stem-cell burger (and lamb, chicken, and pork equivalents) are meat without slaughter.

Note that those who don't eat meat due to the health complications involved would have no compelling reason to start eating test-tube souvlaki.