So I’m not sure what a “man” eats, exactly, but the folks at Esquire thought we’d be interested in a post from their “Eat Like a Man” blog about vat meat. And there’s nothing suitable in that last sentence to attach the link to, so here’s a useless sentence that serves the purpose adequately. The fact that it’s something the lab boys and girls are working on is certainly nothing new to most of us, but this was an interview with one of the scientists who’s actually worked on the problem, and I thought that was nifty.
I’ll be honest, while my mind’s not made up yet, because it’s a hypothetical along the lines of “would I install some kind of blender system in my right thigh for smoothies on the go if the technology were developed,” but I’m not 100% opposed to the idea of eating vat meat. This interval swayed me a bit in the “no” direction though:
Here’s the money quote though:
“And the whole point of growing meat in test tubes is the philosophy of surveillance, so there won’t be viruses or disease-causing entities. If small tumors start to arise, somebody would see it and get rid of that particular culture”
Let’s think about the magnificence of the US food inspection system, and then imagine how the screening process might work at the scale that vat meat would require. ”May contain tumors” is quite possibly the biggest deal killer I can think of at the moment. No kidding, I just skimmed a book called Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived
But hey, maybe that’s what “men” eat. Zing.
Anyway, I think this post deserves this image, which I’ve saved for quite some time now:
(from the delightful Ignition City by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani.)
