Thoughts for Food

Growing Meat





     Perhaps a title better suited for an Onion article, or maybe a horror movie where the scientifically grown meat seeks vengeance against its creators, but certainly a title that will cause a double read. The process of growing meat seems incredibly unnatural to me, but one thing about me personally is that unnatural things attract me. Weird things, weird people, weird innovations, weird meat-growing-processes, all attract my attention like a cat drawn to a laser pointer.

 

     My quizzical nature tends for me to digest things differently than most. See most would classify me as the typical meat eating guy. Love sports, love good food, love cut off tee shirts and occasionally will partake in playing country music entirely too loud. To Ohioans who have seen pastures and fields all their lives this technology immidately should be seen as evil, as a scientific monster. Meat is supposed to come from well fed cattle, or a mud wallowing pig. When I cook my bacon, I want to be able to smell the ranch that my Babe came from, not be assaulted by a smell that I would imagine is similar to the doctor's office. However, in vitro meat is worth a further look, in order to at least be educated enough to stay away from.

 

     The pace of science is dizzying, and the fact that less than 100 years ago Alexander Fleming was first beginning to grow simple cultures of mold in order to produce Penicillin, and now incredibly complex animal flesh products that look and supposedly taste like real meat are being grown begs the question how long until Dr. Frankenstein is playing god in lab. I mean while I may be wary of in vitro meat, I can almost guarentee it tastes better than Spam. If people become enraged about this innovation while allowing that abomination to exist, I might lose faith in society.

 

     In vitro meat specialization was originally tested successfully using goldfish, which means that somewhere scientists are consuming goldsfish in claim of science. If that's not unnatural, then slap me. This new technology is currently taking off like an Apollo spaceship leaving the atmosphere, and experts and theorists have been wating for this day. Ever since man felt hunger, he has imagined a way that he could have an unlimited meat supply that would not fall within the constraints of how many animals are available for eating. I feel like if mammoth meat was more available back in the prehistoric days our population would have been higher than 167. But honestly being able to imagine all of the serious famines and tests of human fortitude with this technology being widely diffused would change history. I'm not the only person to imagine this world. During a time of incredible hardhip, Winston Churchill imagined, "Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium". He believed science would save the world, and if Churchill could see the progress that extraordinary men and women have made today his assertion would seem true.

 

 

     Imagine WW2 where scientists in Russia had this technology. 40 million people who died

unnecessarily would still be alive, would have produced brilliant offspring who could have given the world something it hadnever seen before. A symphony, or a new element, something that only human ingenuity could produce. Or imagine a world without the Irish Potato Famine, the implications of such an event could be so drastic that I may not even be here typing this today. With in vitro meat specialization Irish men and women would not have been forced to emigrate to seek out refuge in America, which means half of the broad shoulders that our infrastructure was built on would never have been on U.S soil in the first place.

     The fact is that half of the conflicts in human history, including to this day have revolved around lack of sustinence. While young, in vitro meat deserves a close look by responsible citizens who want to make an impact on their environment. Because here we have a technology that could ultimately provide wave upon wave of endless meat, like endless zombies in an apocolypse, and save a countless amount of lives now and for generations to come.