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[FelixOrion]

My question would be when do they expect the technology to get cheap and easy enough that a relative layman could essentially 'homebrew' their own artificial meats? It be interesting to see the meat cultivated like one would vegetables from a home garden, or toyed with flavor-wise like custom/homemade wines and beers are.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

I've never eaten insects. But when I watch Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods eating those chili-pepper stir fried grass hoppers or wormzels (worm pretzels), my mouth waters. Prepared right I'm sure they taste very good! He says the taste of tarantula reminds him of eating crab!

Crabs are the Tarantulas of the sea i'm not at all surprised they taste similar.

 

[Kinitari]

I've eaten cooked insects in Thailand and they were delicious.

OT though. If you can convince me that this "laburger" has all the micro-nutrients of real meat (which I don't think it does), then I'll certainly try it.

Why wouldn't it have all the micronutrients of real meat?

 

[FelixOrion]

I've never eaten insects. But when I watch Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods eating those chili-pepper stir fried grass hoppers or wormzels (worm pretzels), my mouth waters. Prepared right I'm sure they taste very good! He says the taste of tarantula reminds him of eating crab!

I used to have a cook book full of recipes you could do with various bugs. Most of them were deserts. The only one I tried when I had it (no idea where it is now) was just a standard chocolate brownies w/ nuts recipe, but replace the nuts with mealworms. The mealworms were easy to get (pet store, fun enough, but they're safe for human consumption and you can probably buy in bulk online; you can find them inside some novelty candies, I know) and were chilled in a freezer before putting them in the brownie batter and then just cooked like normal. Honestly, they were almost indistinguishable in flavor and texture to small nuts you might use in brownies. Only did it once as a novelty thing, but not really awful.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Why wouldn't it have all the micronutrients of real meat?

Because complete and identical replication is hard?

Just compare breast milk to formula for an example.

 

[Rest]

Because complete and identical replication is hard?

Just compare breast milk to formula for an example.

I thought I was speaking to the air. Chemistry is complex and humans don't know anything about it yet.

 

[Vol5]

Why wouldn't it have all the micronutrients of real meat?

I'm no scientist. Maybe it does....All I can get from that article is that it tastes like meat. He doesn't go into exactly what it contains which would certainly worry me before I took a bite. I also noticed the programme is being funded by a group involved in animal welfare, which is noble, but also has me siding with cation simply because they could be pushing an agenda first and thinking of health second.

 

[googleplex]

If it was viable and affordable ,edible protein that tasted good? I think I'd have a moral obligation to eat the laboratory grown meat rather then animal flesh.

 

[Septimus Prime]

I think the problem with insects is plate fright. They'd have to be prepared in such a way that people won't know they're eating insects at all in order for them to really gain any foothold.

 

[Zoolader]

This is gonna end with infertility and a Children of Men type scenario, that's my premonition.

 

[DarkFlow]

If it tastes just as good as real meat, sign me up.

 

[PartlyCloudlike]

I used to have a cook book full of recipes you could do with various bugs. Most of them were deserts. The only one I tried when I had it (no idea where it is now) was just a standard chocolate brownies w/ nuts recipe, but replace the nuts with mealworms. The mealworms were easy to get (pet store, fun enough, but they're safe for human consumption and you can probably buy in bulk online; you can find them inside some novelty candies, I know) and were chilled in a freezer before putting them in the brownie batter and then just cooked like normal. Honestly, they were almost indistinguishable in flavor and texture to small nuts you might use in brownies. Only did it once as a novelty thing, but not really awful.

I think the problem with insects is plate fright. They'd have to be prepared in such a way that people won't know they're eating insects at all in order for them to really gain any foothold.

Agreed. But it sounds like substituting bugs into normal dishes, like those meal worms, would be a gentle way to gradually ease people into the idea of eating bugs. I could see myself being intimidated by the mere appearance of certain bugs like spiders, but if its incorporated into a dish where the appearance is not so distinguishable, I don't think I'd have any issues.

 

[Messofanego]

I've eaten cooked insects in Thailand and they were delicious.

OT though. If you can convince me that this "laburger" has all the micro-nutrients of real meat (which I don't think it does), then I'll certainly try it.

Crabs are the Tarantulas of the sea i'm not at all surprised they taste similar.

I'm hungry now for some tarantula burger!

 

[Fireblend]

I don't feel guilty now and I won't feel guilty later. I don't care where my meat comes from as long as it's delicious.

 

[PartlyCloudlike]

Here's the segment with Andrew Zimmern eating different bugs. I think the combination of the sound effects and his genuine enjoyment of eating these bugs is what makes me salivate whenever I watch it.

http://youtu.be/8ERrbEerT3c?t=25m15s

I would love to try those wormzels.

 

[DoktorEvil]

I'm hungry now for some tarantula burger!

Erm, it'd take a very long time or a drought for me to gather the guts to eat bugs.

 

[nakedsushi]

I've eaten some pretty strange meats, but this one doesn't sound strange at all. It seems pretty harmless to me. If it tastes just like real meat and has no detrimental health effects down the line, sure, sign me up. It's probably a lot better than the "meat" you get at your local fast-food joint, and it doesn't come with the karma debt.

 

[Messofanego]

Erm, it'd take a very long time or a drought for me to gather the guys to eat bugs.

Watch that documentary, I got convinced. Just need to remove the western ickiness and it'll be as standard as any lunch meal.

 

[Kinitari]

Because complete and identical replication is hard?

Just compare breast milk to formula for an example.

I thought I was speaking to the air. Chemistry is complex and humans don't know anything about it yet.

I'm no scientist. Maybe it does....All I can get from that article is that it tastes like meat. He doesn't go into exactly what it contains which would certainly worry me before I took a bite. I also noticed the programme is being funded by a group involved in animal welfare, which is noble, but also has me siding with cation simply because they could be pushing an agenda first and thinking of health second.

The way this is made isn't like formula or anything. It's literally cloned meat. The muscles and fat you'd find in regular meat, you'd find in this. While there could definitely be variations in the sort of nutrients in the meat, that's true for all cows. The difference in feed will effect it's nutritional content I guess.

But... This isn't like fake meat made of tofu or something, for it to grow it would have to be actual muscle tissue and actual fat tissue.

 

[DarthWoo]

So, presumably, if there's technically no barrier to producing tiger, panda or whale meat, could you also produce human meat?

Yes. Are you sure you want to go there? Let's do this one weird step at a time. I don't see a particular reason unless our culture really makes a complete shift into … I get this question not very often, but once in a while it pops up and I usually refuse to answer it. Are you sure you want to ask this question?

This part does actually intrigue me. If they made up some human steaks and found that we're delicious, would the taboo against cannibalism really apply if it doesn't involve killing someone?

 

[FelixOrion]

This part does actually intrigue me. If they made up some human steaks and found that we're delicious, would the taboo against cannibalism really apply if it doesn't involve killing someone?

Maybe, especially if eating artificial human flesh still results in diseases like Kuru.

 

[Dead Man]

Artificial meat is genocide.

That is amazing, lol.