Lab grown meat? No thanks!

If they can culture the real thing, the same as a prime ribeye steak or a chicken breast or a piece of bacon, bring it on! I can't wait for that to happen.

But a bunch of processed, puréed chemicals that are meant to simulate the real thing? No thanks.

If they can culture the real thing, the same as a prime ribeye steak or a chicken breast or a piece of bacon, bring it on! I can't wait for that to happen.

Fortunately, they can do that.
And here is the team of Nobel Prize-winning scientist that perfected the technique:



Sadly, it uses proprietary technology, so they have the monopoly on it for now.

Sign me up. I'm down to plant a grove of MeatTrees℠

If they can culture the real thing, the same as a prime ribeye steak or a chicken breast or a piece of bacon, bring it on! I can't wait for that to happen.

Fortunately, they can do that.
And here is the team of Nobel Prize-winning scientist that perfected the technique:



Sadly, it uses proprietary technology, so they have the monopoly on it for now.

LOL. We are no match for these geniuses, and will have to wait until their patent expires.

In the 80s and 90s I used to have the same thoughts as this about local fish farms. I thought everything had to be wild caught. Then I learn about our ever expanding consumers, and there literally isn't enough for everyone to have wild fish. We have depleted our natural resources. If it wasn't for farm raised fish, we would have forgotten was fish tasted like years ago.
The small store on my farm sells farm raised meats.I do ALOT of education. Even though my customers and I live in a farming community, everybody assumes that farms like mine operate everywhere, and the meat they eat is from the picture above, just like 1970 when they were growing up. Truth is, industrial farms and CAFOs (Consolidated Animal Feed Operations) is where your meat comes from. There is 3-4 major meat packers in this country, and that is where 90% of your grocery store meat comes from. WalMart, IGA, SAMs, Smiths, Buttry's, Fred's, King Sooper, Krogers....they all have to buy from one of the 4 packers. So as we trace this backwards, from your fridge, to Krogers, to IBP, ....where does it come from? A CAFO, an industrial farm. AKA feedlot.
Ever been to a feedlot? Not many people have. It's quite unsightly to an outsider. It's ghastly to me, and I raise livestock. Feedlots buy feeders (young steers or heifers) and their job it to fatten a cow to sell to a packer. He probly has a contract to supply X many head at XXXX lbs and will make $X.XX per pound live weight. He only makes a profit if the cost of feed and transportation is low. Corn and soybeans are cheaper than hay or grass, plus they get twice as fat in half the time. But bovine have 4 stomachs evolved over thousands of yrs to process grass. But they feed them grain. Why? Cost. I understand that they do mix in some ground alfalfa or straw, if not, the cows stomachs would stop digestion with a condition called acidosis. And they are fed antibiotics. This because they are all standing in each others fecal matter, and if one gets sick, they all get sick. Plus it has the added benefit of making the cow gain weight even faster. A shot of antibiotics are cheap, when averaged out, over thousands of head of cattle. Keep in mind, feedlots don't have grass for them to graze on. These are concentration camps for cows.
When I was on active duty in the USAF, we were laying some asphalt on the flightline at Mountain Home AFB Idaho. When the wind would blow in from the West, we would have to wear scarfs over our faces, and it was 115Deg F out there, because the wind was carrying the dried urine soaked and cow crap dirt from the feedlot miles away, and we didn't want that in our lungs. So from google maps I took 2 screen shots, 1 of most of the operation, and 2 a closeup shot so you can see the difference between their pens, and a green field. This is a western feedlot, so it doesn't have the obligatory sewage lagoon. Closer to the midwest like Nebraska and Missouri, they all have sewage lagoons. They usually get washed over every few yrs during flooding. So it goes into the groundwater or the nearest stream.
What I just described and shown you is our Nation's beef supply. Chicken and pork is even worse as those animals never see the outside of the cage they were raised in. Neither sun nor snow nor rain will touch a hogs back. Those farms are even more reliant on antibiotics and sewage lagoons for daily operations.
Most of this info is new, or just news consumers would rather not know about. But those who do know, care. That is why I educate my customers as to where the meat from the animals I sell comes from, their name, breed, farm or farmer I bought it from, and most importantly, open pasture and non-confinement raised. This being a shaving website, this is why I believe that the fat rendered from the animals that lived out their lives on my pastures, is the best you can get...to saponify. And to address the lab grown meat, it may not seem appetizing right now, but the conditions these animals live in, and the meds we have to pump them up with is on an unsustainable trajectory. But our country, and our world will need protein. The bio-accumulation of chemicals and hormones that animal ingests goes into your mouth, and the bodies of our children. As stewards of our land, animals, and households, we need to ensure we do it in a clean, humane, and pure way.

My cows.


Aerial view of feedlot.


Up close view of cattle

It's a no for me!

we buy our meat locally and/or from farms where the livestock is treated humanely. same for our eggs as well.

It makes a difference. Both in your health, that of your family, and it keeps your money in your local community.

In the 80s and 90s I used to have the same thoughts as this about local fish farms. I thought everything had to be wild caught. Then I learn about our ever expanding consumers, and there literally isn't enough for everyone to have wild fish. We have depleted our natural resources. If it wasn't for farm raised fish, we would have forgotten was fish tasted like years ago.
The small store on my farm sells farm raised meats.I do ALOT of education. Even though my customers and I live in a farming community, everybody assumes that farms like mine operate everywhere, and the meat they eat is from the picture above, just like 1970 when they were growing up. Truth is, industrial farms and CAFOs (Consolidated Animal Feed Operations) is where your meat comes from. There is 3-4 major meat packers in this country, and that is where 90% of your grocery store meat comes from. WalMart, IGA, SAMs, Smiths, Buttry's, Fred's, King Sooper, Krogers....they all have to buy from one of the 4 packers. So as we trace this backwards, from your fridge, to Krogers, to IBP, ....where does it come from? A CAFO, an industrial farm. AKA feedlot.
Ever been to a feedlot? Not many people have. It's quite unsightly to an outsider. It's ghastly to me, and I raise livestock. Feedlots buy feeders (young steers or heifers) and their job it to fatten a cow to sell to a packer. He probly has a contract to supply X many head at XXXX lbs and will make $X.XX per pound live weight. He only makes a profit if the cost of feed and transportation is low. Corn and soybeans are cheaper than hay or grass, plus they get twice as fat in half the time. But bovine have 4 stomachs evolved over thousands of yrs to process grass. But they feed them grain. Why? Cost. I understand that they do mix in some ground alfalfa or straw, if not, the cows stomachs would stop digestion with a condition called acidosis. And they are fed antibiotics. This because they are all standing in each others fecal matter, and if one gets sick, they all get sick. Plus it has the added benefit of making the cow gain weight even faster. A shot of antibiotics are cheap, when averaged out, over thousands of head of cattle. Keep in mind, feedlots don't have grass for them to graze on. These are concentration camps for cows.
When I was on active duty in the USAF, we were laying some asphalt on the flightline at Mountain Home AFB Idaho. When the wind would blow in from the West, we would have to wear scarfs over our faces, and it was 115Deg F out there, because the wind was carrying the dried urine soaked and cow crap dirt from the feedlot miles away, and we didn't want that in our lungs. So from google maps I took 2 screen shots, 1 of most of the operation, and 2 a closeup shot so you can see the difference between their pens, and a green field. This is a western feedlot, so it doesn't have the obligatory sewage lagoon. Closer to the midwest like Nebraska and Missouri, they all have sewage lagoons. They usually get washed over every few yrs during flooding. So it goes into the groundwater or the nearest stream.
What I just described and shown you is our Nation's beef supply. Chicken and pork is even worse as those animals never see the outside of the cage they were raised in. Neither sun nor snow nor rain will touch a hogs back. Those farms are even more reliant on antibiotics and sewage lagoons for daily operations.
Most of this info is new, or just news consumers would rather not know about. But those who do know, care. That is why I educate my customers as to where the meat from the animals I sell comes from, their name, breed, farm or farmer I bought it from, and most importantly, open pasture and non-confinement raised. This being a shaving website, this is why I believe that the fat rendered from the animals that lived out their lives on my pastures, is the best you can get...to saponify. And to address the lab grown meat, it may not seem appetizing right now, but the conditions these animals live in, and the meds we have to pump them up with is on an unsustainable trajectory. But our country, and our world will need protein. The bio-accumulation of chemicals and hormones that animal ingests goes into your mouth, and the bodies of our children. As stewards of our land, animals, and households, we need to ensure we do it in a clean, humane, and pure way.

My cows.


Aerial view of feedlot.


Up close view of cattle

Thank you for the education. It really makes one think twice about what we are doing to feed ourselves, or rather, to keep up our fiction of where and how are food animals are kept.
Like Andrew, we buy only the humane eggs. I will be interested in where our poultry comes from, as the grocery chain I work for likes to tout how they "love local" farms.

I get it, I really do. I'm only in livestock production for ourselves. It's almost impossible to meet the farmer that raised your meat now days. A local butcher that buys from feedlots actually clued me into the price difference from grain fed vs grass fed. It was almost double the price per pound. I actually had no clue the chasm between the 2 was so vast. We serve in a locally depressed feed desert, but we try to make our products affordable for all.

Side note, the wife runs most of the chicken side of our farm. When prices went up, ours stayed the same. We have people paying for eggs, unwashed, just to get open pasture raised eggs, before they are laid.

I recommend reading How The World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. If you like numbers you’ll love this book. The author gets into detail about the huge advances humans have made in (among other things) producing food over the last 100 or so years and by implication, the threats posed to food production by the decarbonization movement. 

https://www.amazon.com/How-World-Really-...268&sr=8-1

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/books...-smil.html