Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.
“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.
The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.
Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.
Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.
The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.
Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.
I can’t wait for lab grown meat to become widely available (in my state at least). I think it’s really cool. Being able to eat real meat without harming animals sounds so futuristic. It’s one piece of future technology that I can actually get behind.
Agreed. I think the environmental impact is much lower as well, which is basically a win/win if prices can compete with farmed animals.
It could, if we could stop giving factory farms subsidies and give them to lab-meat-makers instead.
I’m absolutely not sold on the lower ecological footprint, the same hubub was made about vertical farming and that was either highly expensive or came with a gigantic footprint.
But I sure hope it pans out.
Vertical farm viability scales almost inversely with electricity costs. And the latter trends lower and lower as time goes by. So I’m pretty confident that it’s coming.
I used to build large scale hydroponic farms over a decade ago and they are super efficient at using resources
I don’t think there’s any doubt that it will be Cussler to produce that real meat
Yeah me too.
Even if you don’t care about animals, synthetic will be cheaper, tastier, healthier, and better for the environment.
Honestly the only thing not to like about it is that you don’t like the idea.
I dream of lab-grown bacon. Each piece an identical example of bacon perfection: just the right thickness and ratio of meat to fat.
A law mandating Floridians pay more for their food than any other U.S.citizen. Yeah, I’m sure that won’t be overturned.
Not sure how that’s relevant to my statement regarding lab-grown bacon, but if you don’t think individual states pass laws that make their citizens pay more for things, you’re not very familiar with the U.S.A.
The thing I never got about the plant based burger patties is they try to make it taste like a scrappy beef patty instead of making ot taste good in its own flavor. Like why can’t it just be its own thing like how a chicken sandwich is different than a beef burger
The idea is that you can quickly and easily replicate a flavor you’re used to and remove the animal element. You can also buy it and have a good idea what it will taste like.
But it’s not healthy! Yeah no kidding, when I eat a burger it’s generally not for the health benefits.
Are you referring to plant-based burgers? That would definitely apply to Beyond and Impossible as they add way too much coconut oil, and salt. In other words they’re unhealthy for some of the same reasons animal flesh is unhealthy, although they are still less harmful than their animal counterparts just by lacking the animal proteins.
Pretty much. Although I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t add salt to a burger anyway, and the beyond/impossible burgers don’t need any extra, so I don’t think the sodium content is a super fair comparison.
As others already noted, you can get veggie burgers that taste like veggie burgers. I actually order black bean burgers with bacon and cheese and jalapenos at the cafe at my work, they are so good. Like it much better with black bean burger than hamburger.
I mean, you’re basically describing a black bean burger. The real question is why we still can’t buy like, pre-packaged black bean burger mix or ready made patties easily.
You can, at least in my local grocery stores. Black bean burger patties have been available in the frozen section for years.
They’re a bit of a rip off because they’re way more expensive than a can of beans + spices, and probably an order of magnitude more expensive than dry beans + spices, but they’re usually around the same price as the premade beef patties, by weight.
Damn, guess I just live in an area where they’re not as common then. They’re definitely a rip-off, but then so are all pre-made patties. You pay a premium for the convenience.
If you live near Aldi’s, they have a frozen black bean patty available sometimes. I can’t tell the rhythm or reason to when they stock it, but they are reasonably priced and pretty tasty if ya see em
I don’t think ive ever heard of a black bean burger I’ll have to see if I can make some one day
Some of them are, and it doesn’t take long (maybe a year) on a plant-based lifestyle to start naturally preferring more plant-forward burgers.
Marketing. There’s a dramatically larger target market if it tastes like beef.
It depends how they make them. Some plant based burgers are just made with scraps from soy milk production, look like expired meat and taste like polystyrene or worse while the impossible burger it’s difficult to distinguish with a blind test: the flavor, the texture and the appearance are extremely similar. They even have the fake blood in the middle
The only thing I really dont know about is the texture. If its ground down it will be indistinguishable. But are they able to make steaks that look and feel like actual steaks?
One thing people are afraid of though is being “duped”. In a world where everyone is afraid of deception, they want all the products they consume to be clearly labeled. My partner thinks that they’ve been steadily replacing all meat with lab-grown and just not telling anyone and not labeling the packaging. Like, one day she stopped buying the chicken breasts she’d normally get, saying that “it doesn’t taste right. It doesn’t taste how it did pre-pandemic. They’ve done something to it.”
I mean I have a Christian friend that thinks they have spoken with a spirit and won’t microwave things because of “radiation.” They’re clearly insane just like your partner. The thing is I would never date them.
If my partner is insane, the pandemic did it to her. And how could it not, it killed her dad among several other people she loved.
… Beware.
My partner has weird ideas about things too, but I don’t think people generally worry about this.