August 04, 2005

• "...you could theoretically make actual meat..." Ack!
• If you knew what goes into such products as chicken nuggets, you would much prefer the thought of meat grown in a vat. I know I do.
• Either way, I don't feel so well now...
• I get emails every day from people claiming they have a product that can grow meat.
• Even before learning what they're made with, those nuggets made me queasy. And of late, even burgers do the same. Last one I had in some MegaChain franchise, even while I was starving and really in the mood for a double cheese, it tasted to me like a soaking wet sponge.
• Don't ever eat that shit, trust me.
• If your chicken nuggets persist for more than four hours, contact your doctor immediately.
• I"d think the vegans I've met would be all over this. Don't have to kill an animal to get cells to grow into steaks.
• It depends on the vegan. I'm a vegetarian, and I wouldn't eat lab-grown meat, because I dislike the taste. (Funny thing, I've been a vegetarian for so long, I've forgotten the taste of most meat, but I do remember not liking it much.) Vegans/vegetarians that are motivated by health or religious reasons probably wouldn't change, those motivated by animal rights might or might not.
• This makes me realize how smegmatic my dietary lifestyle is. I need to learn to hunt.
• VeraGemini - I've known may vegetarians like you, and I respect their (your) choices. My favorite one called herself a junk food vegetarian, and had disliked meat since she was a young child. If I sounded snarky, it's just that I've met too many who decided to become vegans on the way to stay with me for a long time and expected me to change the way I cook while they were there, or, those who would accept a dinner invitation where I planned for their presence and went through my garbage to make sure that I hadn't tried to feed them something yucky.
• Does this scare anyone else in an Oryx and Crake-y kind of way?
• Atwood writes very unsettling novels, although I've always found her rather tedious to read.
• They sautéed the results in olive oil and garlic That sounds so "Hannibal Lecter".
• I'd love to be able to grow my own meat. God, I wish I had a boyfriend.
• I recall the shock of a woman in the subway, at my foolish grinning in front of a poster hawking some facial cream called "Rejuvenesse". Ah, I loved Oryx & Crake... There's an old image from a nanotech article I read years ago that's stuck on my mind: a theoretical 'meat-making' machine, about the size of a breadbox, that would extrude slices of meat, manufactured out of elements in the air. That would certainly cut the cost of food at home, for sure.
• I'd eat it. No problem. In fact, I believe it is almost inevitable that most people will eat it. However, my guess is that for a long time, it will taste like unmitigated crap. Think of the processed "ham" they sell at Safeway. Not the nice stuff, the stuff which costs $1.xx/pound. Yick. Predictions: - Someone will make an appliance-type-box to do this. This will happen much sooner than most people would predict. I suspect within a decade. - At first it will be a crazy extravagance. People will pretend to like it. It will be advertised as much healthier, better for the environment, etc. - Then, after a long while, the situation will reverse and constructed-meat will be what the proletariat eats as its staple. "Real Meat" will be hotly debated as a legal option, but will finally remain available and expensive. I will basically only be available at nice restaurants and from specialty stores for wealthy folks. Trader Joes will carry it, of course.
• "The Way We Eat" author Peter Singer explains the advantage of wingless chickens, how humans discriminate against animals, and the downside of buying locally grown food.
• no wings?!?! what will we put the buffalo sauce on, then? :(
• Buffalos.