Meat without the Animal

From a story on NPR titled Lab-Grown Meat a Reality, But Who Will Eat It?

Though the idea of growing animal parts in a lab rather than on a farm has been around for a century, it has never seemed like a good time to talk about man-made meat. But the concept has had some famous proponents, including Winston Churchill in his 1932 essay "Fifty Years Hence": "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."

Churchill was likely inspired by the work of Alexis Carrel, who at the time of Churchill's comment had been keeping alive a cultured piece of chicken heart tissue for 20 years. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist kept his experiment small, but it fed many an imagination, including that of author Frederik Pohl.

Pohl wrote the 1952 sci-fi novel The Space Merchants, in which tissue-cultured meat gets a starring if inglorious role — it's the starter ingredient for an ever-growing lumpen food source known affectionately as Chicken Little.

...

Vladimir Mironov, a biologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, is among a handful of scientists culturing meat from animal tissue. His work involves turning formless, textureless patches of the stuff into mass-produced form — like meat sheets, or what one might affectionately call "shmeat."

"I personally believe that this [is the] inescapable future," he says.

But standing between Mironov and shmeat right now are production models, production facilities, venture capital — and consumer demand.

Meat: A film about Cannibals in Brooklyn

Brooklyn girl loses boyfriends to parents' meat casserole - no, really - then tries to convince her family it's possible to have a human-free meal. This is funny and clever and has a great soundtrack. Pointless, maybe, and a splatter fest but still...

Meat by Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt

What's Eyeball Soup?

I've been a vegetarian for 26 years. I've never tried to convert anyone and I don't plan to start here. I want to write a book called Eyeball Soup to answer some nagging questions - for myself as much as anyone - about whether eating meat is a good idea.

You'd think I'd know by now. But new issues have arisen, particularly in relation to the environment, and the survival of the human race. Some people argue that eating meat wastes water, destroys forests and contributes to climate change. Others say it's possible to raise animals in such a way that neither beats nor planet suffers.

The health and ethical aspects are worth a fresh look too. Because I have no medical background, I've begun interviewing health professionals to hear the good and bad about eating meat. I ask whether hormones in chicken cause girls to menstruate early, whether vegetarian have a lower incidence of heart disease, whether you can get enough iron and calcium on a vegan diet, and if vegetarians live longer. I have a mountain of books beside my bed on the loftier aspects of eating meat, so that I can put together a pared-down summation of what some of the world's larger brains have to say on the topic, for and against.

In the past few years there have been many newspaper and magazine articles about the economics of feeding the world. The cost of food is rising, availability is decreasing, many field that were once used to grow food have been given over to crops for animals, or corn for ethanol-based fuel. Are we using the world's arable land in an economically intelligent and responsible way.

For the record, I respect the right of each person to make their own choice about what they eat. In my own home, I'm the only vegetarian. My husband eats anything put on a plate. My youngest son consumes a couple of farmyard creatures per month. And if, while watching television with my older son, I wonder aloud if I can do a meatless version of one of Jamie Oliver's meals (almost universally, no), he begs me to make it 'properly'. I buy meat and cook meat but never eat meat. That's my choice but I know of vegan households where leather, honey and jelly are banned for young and old. I also have a dear friend whose husband insists that something die for every meal. And a friend who describe her diet, which includes white meat, as 'vegetarian lite'.

It's a personal decision, but one that has an enormous impact on people around you, and on the globe. I hope that if people are weighing up the pros and cons, or wondering if they have all the information, a book like this might help.

And the working title? Many years ago, when I was travelling in Istanbul, my partner and I, desperately hungry, ventured up a set of narrow wooden stairs to a dark restaurant that was as exotic and authentic as we could possibly have hoped for. The walls were covered in luxe fabric, the carpet was a thick and complicated mix of rich reds, blues and golds, the staff were kohl-eyed and flaxen-haired. But we quickly realised we'd walked into a restaurant famed for its soups - soups made from every type of creature that submitted to go belly-up for human dining pleasure. After struggling to communicate our wish for a soup that contained no meat, our waiter nodded in understanding. He had just the thing. He returned with a selection of eyeballs in broth, which surely no one would consider as meat. I respect this as an experience that taught me a lot about culture, context, language, and the curious interaction between man and beast.

The ill-considered name

Despite the stupid working title I gave my book proposal, one wonderful publisher saw some merit in my idea. She asked me to send her a sample chapter of Eyeball Soup: the Pros and Cons of Eating Meat. 

Maybe the fact we once worked together allowed her to see past the ill-considered name to recall that I am terribly fond of deadlines, make some of my income stringing words together, and am a longtime vegetarian who cooks meat for others. She knows, too, that I'm obsessively interested in food but find the fuss surrounding cookbooks, food reviewing and celebrity chefs unspeakably boring. Making dinner is a chore. Reading about food issues is a treat.

So I've started this blog to house my musings about meat - about what it does to/for our body, how the production of livestock impacts on the natural world, the Third World and the financial world, what the ethical implications of meat consumption are, and some of the myths that surround the business of eating animals. I know other people are interested in meat because I read their books and articles for which, thank you.

That sample chapter's just a whisker away. I'll start right here.