Science Fiction Meets Reality with Engineered Meat

Get ready to take tofurkey and meat substitutes to another level. Researchers out of the Netherlands have created an artificial meat that could be available in supermarket shelves within 5 years. Described as a soggy pork, the creators are investigating ways on improving the muscle tissue to more closely resemble actual meat.

Vegetarian groups welcomed the news as an ethical form of meat eating. A spokesman for Peta said: “As far as we’re concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there’s no ethical objection.”

Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, said: “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there.” He adds, “This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.”

The scientists used cells from the muscle of a live pig then multiplied them to create muscle tissue. If they can find ways to artificially exercise the muscle, they believe it can be turned into something more palatable (think juicy steak). The project is funded by the Dutch government following the creation of artificial fish fillets from goldfish muscle cells.

Science fiction meets reality. The possibility of eating engineered meat is on our dinner table but it can be what saves the planet from greenhouse gases and global warming. Pass the HP Sauce, please.