(Thinkstock)It cost $330,000 to develop. By October, it will be on a celebrity taster’s plate.
Dutch scientist Mark Post and his team are creating the world’s first lab-grown burger. Post’s first “pinkish, yellowish” patty is just half-an-inch wide. By fall, he hopes to be able to make one ready for serving. Within a decade or so, he expects full industrialization.
“The patty will be much like a regular quarter-pounder — but with one big difference: This one will be created by growing bovine stem cells in a vat, transforming them into thousands of thin layers of beef muscle cells, mincing them into tiny pieces, then combining the bits with lab-grown animal fat to form a lump of meat the size of a golf ball,” MSNBC reports.
Post claims that this new technology can be a solution to impending meat shortages:
"Technologically, we can make small pieces of muscle and therefore meat," he told Swedish Ekot. "We are rapidly heading toward a meat crisis. Meat consumption is going to double in the next 40 years."
“If successful, scientists estimate the experimental meat could require 40% less energy to produce than real animal meat uses now,” Newser reports.
The second burger won’t cost $300,000. Instead, it will be offered for “an extreme reduction in price” — $263,000.
In case you were wondering, yes, PETA is on board with the concept.
If price weren’t an object — or let’s assume further price reductions would eventually rival what we’re used to paying for our burger fix — would you opt for a lab-grown burger?
Prefer to make your own burger? Try Chef Fabio's delicious at-home version below.
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