£200,000 for a test-tube burger

19 February, 2012 by Stonehead 0 Comments

A £200,000 test-tube burger marks a milestone in future meat-eating, or at least in does in Guardian land.

Lurking in a petri dish in a laboratory in the Netherlands is an unlikely contender for the future of food. The yellow-pink sliver the size of a corn plaster is the state-of-the-art in lab-grown meat, and a milestone on the path to the world’s first burger made from stem cells.

Dr Mark Post, head of physiology at Maastricht University, plans to unveil a complete burger – produced at a cost of more than £200,000 – this October.

He hopes Heston Blumenthal, the chef and owner of the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, will cook the offering for a celebrity taster as yet unnamed.

via £200,000 test-tube burger marks milestone in future meat-eating | Environment | The Guardian.

Thanks, but no thanks.

And no, it’s not just because I’m dubious about the claim that an industrial process will be more environmentally ‘friendly’ than animals reared outside. Nor is because I’m dubious about it being a good alternative food for vegans.

It’s not even because I suspect big corporations will be cheered by the prospect of controlling meat production through a patented process that will makes them very large amounts of money. Nor is it down to an ingrained Luddite tendency. Nor to the loss of farm livelihoods.

No, one of my main objections is the threat it poses to biodiversity. What happens to farmed animals when they’re replaced by vat burgers? What happens to the soil when there’s no manure to spread on it? What happens to the plants and wildlife that have come to depend on particular farming practices?