“Most Expensive Hamburger Project on the Planet”

€300,000 is what someone is paying Mark Post to create a hamburger. Why so much money? Isn’t hamburger the poor man’s steak?

Could it have something to do with being asked to make a hamburger without using any meat from an animal? Yeah, that could up the price tag.

Professor Post, the head of the Masstricht University in the Netherlands is on the forefront of creating a new way of producing meat without animal husbandry all together. Sounds eerily  like something straight out of Huxley’s, Brave New World…

Many have tried creating meat from stem cells in the past with little-to-no success, so how is Professor Post doing it differently and better than the rest? Myosatellite cells are the key according to Post. These special cells can form muscles on their own and be extracted from mature animals without killing them. Theoretically in the future, this method can be used for pork, fish, chicken, and basically animal that contains myosatellite cells in its muscles. Killing animals for meat may become thing of the past; can we get a WOOT WOOT from PETA?

But why go through all this trouble?

Meat is a very costly process for the environment. Cattle consumes about 10% of the world’s fresh water supply, and livestock farming accounts for about 18% of green house gas emissions, that’s more than cars! And the UN forecasts that by 2050, the world demand for meat will double.

This new process of producing food in labs instead on land, is a look into the future. Although we are making progress in terms of sustainability, we are far from making meat as tasty as nature does. Professor Post admits the flavor of meat is the hardest thing to overcome because “we don’t know where the taste comes from.” 

[via bbc.uk.co] [IMG: Bacon Weave Brat Burger]