Lab-Grown Meat: Real Meat Grown in a Tube

Image via BBC

Dutch scientists are making the next Big Mac in a test tube.  Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands is working with his team to create strips of muscle and fat that can be combined together to create an edible hamburger. They are using bovine stem cells to create the tissue and hope to create the first lab-grown hamburger by the end of the year.

According to a BBC article by Pallab Ghosh, investors and scientists are developing the meat-growing process to limit the environmental damage of traditional meat production. Dr. Post elaborated on the benefit of lab meat.

"It will help reduce land pressures. Anything that stops more wild land being converted to agricultural land is a good thing. We're already reaching a critical point in availability of arable land," he said.

Though the team plans on finishing their burger by the end of this year, it will take time to perfect their process for commercial implications. They predict that their first burger will taste rather bland. A tasty and affordable lab burger probably won't be on the market until around ten years from now.

Would you eat a lab-grown burger?