The new good-for-you meat won"t be pork or grass-fed beef, and it won"t be made of soy. If the effort of a few future-minded scientists succeeded, it will taste and look like old-fashioned meat—only it"ll be raised in a lab, not on a farm.
Several groups of scientists are raising eatable meat in dishes from animal muscle cells. The technology has a long way to go before meat could hit supermarkets. But these researchers insist it will be a more efficient way to produce an important kind of the American diet—and will make meat healthier. What"s more, growing lab meat will mean scientists can control levels and types of fats, protein and other substances and produce a product less likely to be polluted. Probably, a McDonald"s breakfast sausage could protect you from heart disease instead of giving heart disease.
But some scientists are doubtful, "It"ll never be practical—just too technically and financially difficult." Meat, after all, is not simply a mass of muscle cells; it"s a complex tissue composed of fat, nerves, blood vessels and connective tissues. Each cell type plays a role in the flavor and mouth-feel. Imitating this structure is essential to make your product tasty. Actually, producing meat in a lab dish is far from a new idea. In 1912, a French scientist placed chicken heart tissue in a bottle of nutrients. The muscle cells grew for more than 30 years—outliving the scientist himself. As for the cost, researchers are trying to bring it down. Now lab meat runs $1,000 to $5,000 a pound to produce. It"s unaffordable so far.
In an era of bird flu, mad cow disease, increasing population densities and ambition to travel to Mars, tissue-engineered meat is the inescapable future of humanity. But food consumption is a conservative cultural phenomenon. It can take several generations to change. Why does it take long for people to change their food