Thread

Where's the Beef?: The lab-grown-meat revolution that wasn't

75 points · 166 comments · Hooke

Balgair · 1790269015 · focus · HN ↗
Man, I'm so glad I don't trade stocks.
I was so convinced that these meatless meats were going to be the next big thing.
One thing I think they missed out on was getting to 'close enough' and 'much cheaper' and then just pivoting.
Like, why stay with simulating the 5 or so animals we harvest? Just go off and make up new ones!
Like, here's a jackalope burger, or a unicorn burger or something. Tie into marketing!
"Exclusive to BurgerKing, the Iron Man 5 burger! Now through August 29th only!"
Put in some strange spices, vary the texture, give it a red and gold swirl, let the imagination run wild.
Can you imagine what business a Spiderman burger patty or sausage link would do? K-Pop demon hunters branded chicken-ish nugget like things?
1. nancyminusone · 1790269242 · focus · HN ↗
  Wouldn't you be able to do this with ordinary processed meat today?
  I remember as a kid, we once ate some kind of filled chicken nugget thing, which would have been pulped chicken glued back together into a pouch. I thought it was pretty tasty, but in hindsight its probably good that I only got to eat it a couple times, because typing it out now it sounds disgusting and super unhealthy.
2. hydrogen7800 · 1790270033 · focus · HN ↗
  I always wondered why they tried to mimic "real" meat rather than just making it its own thing. Gluten free cakes are another example. I suppose you need to first penetrate the market/general consciousness first before inventing a whole novel food.
  1. hn_throwaway_99 · 1790273635 · focus · HN ↗
    There is some confusion I think in what this article is about. It's specifically about lab grown animal cells, which was always crazy expensive and never produced a good tasting meat due to the lack of integrated fat.
    That is very different from stuff like Beyond and Impossible Burgers which aim to mimic the taste of meat with plant ingredients. If anything, lab grown meat cells were at a huge disadvantage to the Beyond/Impossible crew, who could make a better meat for cheaper and was more appealing to customers (if I'm going to forego an animal product, I'd rather have a plant version than a frankenmeat version).
    But to your point, I really liked Impossible Burgers specifically because they were the only plant-based alternative that really satisfied a craving for meat. There were veggie burgers for years prior, and they were "its own thing", but I'd always feel hungry after eating one. I like Impossible Burgers because it satisfies all my hunger for meat but I'm not killing an animal in the process.
    swiftcoder · 1790282294 · focus · HN ↗
    > It's specifically about lab grown animal cells, which was always crazy expensive and never produced a good tasting meat due to the lack of integrated fat.
    These days they are growing animal fats in bioreactors too, albeit separately from the proteins, and then sort of 3D printing them into one another to achieve a meat-like taste and texture. It's conceptually pretty cool, even if the results appear to be underwhelming.
3. EliRivers · 1790276480 · focus · HN ↗
  It was going to be celebrity meat. As in, genetically identical to celebrities. In some circles, it would become de rigueur to host dinner parties at which one served meat cultured from the people throwing the dinner party. I wanted to see that future.
  1. shagie · 1790304134 · focus · HN ↗
    I sampled some of Li’s unusual dish while he continued. “I had the ship take a few cells from a variety of people on Earth. Without their knowledge, of course.” He waved the sword vaguely at the table behind us. “Most of you over there will be eating either Stewed Idi Amin or General Pinochet Chilli Con Carne; here in the centre we have a combination of General Stroessner Meat Balls and Richard Nixon Burgers. The rest of you have Ferdinand Marcos Sauté and Shah of Iran Kebabs. ...” We ate up, most of us quite amused. One or two thought the idea a little too outré, and some affected boredom because they thought Li needed discouragement not accomplices, while a few were just too full already. But the majority laughed and ate, comparing tastes and textures. “If they could see us now,” Roghres giggled. “Cannibals from outer space!”
    The State of the Art by Iain Banks (The Culture) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art#Collection_contents" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art#Collectio...
4. dyauspitr · 1790290792 · focus · HN ↗
  What do you mean by meatless meats? If you meant the beyond burger type of stuff which was just soy heavily processed then there wasn’t a shot in hell it would end up getting big. It’s probably way worse for you than red meat.
  You have to wait until you have actual lab grown meat and I think that will actually be really successful if they can create a real meat with all of its complexities and nerves and fat striations, etc. they’re also going to have to prove to people that it’s not gonna cause cancers and things like that but if they can pull that off, it’s going to be a massive massive industry.
  1. chrisco255 · 1790327816 · focus · HN ↗
    Red meat is good for you actually.
5. account42 · 1790338199 · focus · HN ↗
  People are generally not interested in eating soylent no matter what you color it or what cute name you market it as.
  1. SenHeng · 1790359518 · focus · HN ↗
    I don’t enjoy Soylent as well but the mock meat Buddhist meals made from I-dont-know-what that can be found in countries like Singapore, Taiwan and hongkong are quite delicious.
    If you weren’t paying attention, it quite literally tastes and feels like chicken.
    <a href="https://www.foodadvisor.com.sg/eatery/mock-meat/" rel="nofollow">https://www.foodadvisor.com.sg/eatery/mock-meat/

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