Lab Meat?

Posted 01.10.06
NOVA scienceNOW

(This video is no longer available for streaming.) Some people avoid meat because it involves killing animals. Other people love meat; they can't get enough. Here is a development that might make both sides happy: lab-made meat. In this NOVA scienceNOW video, reporter Win Rosenfeld shares this juicy story.

Running Time: 02:00

Transcript

LAB MEAT?

PBS Airdate: January 10, 2006

ROBERT KRULWICH: Ummm, meat—this is a story about meat. Some people avoid meat because it involves killing animals. Other people love meat. They can't get enough. Here is a development that might make both sides happy. Reporter Win Rosenfeld has the story.

DANIEL NEWMARK: I like meat. I eat it all the time.

JAY GONZALES: Pork chops, steaks...

MAYE MUSK: I love hamburger.

WIN ROSENFELD (Correspondent): You might not have thought about it, but that hamburger that he's about to put in his mouth, it's inefficient to produce.

BOB LILIENFELD (Author): ...because of all the water, grains, chemicals, fertilizers, everything it took to turn grass into cows and cows into meat, and get the meat to your house.

WIN ROSENFELD: That's a lot of energy and a lot of waste. And meat can make us sick, and we do have to kill billions of animals. Jason Matheny of the University of Maryland says he's got the answer.

JASON MATHENY (University of Maryland): What we're doing here is cloning, effectively, the muscle cells from the farm animal.

WIN ROSENFELD: Cloning meat?

JASON MATHENY: That's right.

WIN ROSENFELD: Who's going to eat that?

HARRY BIXLER: As long as it wasn't poisonous, I'd give it a try.

CATHERINE CARABALLO: If I can't tell the difference, of course I'd eat it.

MONIQUE CHANG: As long as it tastes the same.

JASON MATHENY: If you start out a chicken cell, it should taste like chicken.

WIN ROSENFELD: Then again, doesn't everything. How about texture?

JASON MATHENY: Farm animals produce meat of a certain texture because they move around. We have to mimic those conditions in vitro.

WIN ROSENFELD: In vitro meaning?

JASON MATHENY: Literally, stretch the cells mechanically.

WIN ROSENFELD: Exercise cells in a lab? Okay, so the only question left is...

CATHERINE CARABALLO: You got a piece?

WIN ROSENFELD: Here it is: cultured meat.

CROWD: Bon appetit, bon appetit.

WIN ROSENFELD: Now, this piece was made by scientists at the University of Western Australia. NASA's been interested, and the Dutch government has invested $5,000,000 dollars in cultured meat. Right now, you have to clone a cell, stretch it on a scaffold, and feed it an expensive, nutritious soup. This makes each little bit very costly. What if I wanted a little more?

JASON MATHENY: If you wanted to pay a million dollars, right now, we could get you a kilogram of beef.

WIN ROSENFELD: No thanks, I'll stick with this, for now.

Credits

Lab Meat?

Executive Producer: Samuel Fine
Executive Editor: Robert Krulwich
Senior Series Producer: Vincent Liota
Senior Producer: Robe Imbriano
Producers: Julia Cort
Carla Denly
Robe Imbriano
Dean Irwin
Vincent Liota
Mary Robertson
Win Rosenfeld
Editors: Ben Ehrlich
Nathan Hendrie
Robe Imbriano
Vincent Liota
Win Rosenfeld
Supervising Producer: Andrea Cross
Development Producer: Kyla Dunn
Program Editor: Steve Trevisan
Associate Producers: Anthony Manupelli
Mary Robertson
Win Rosenfeld
Ayo Babatunde
Shimona Shahi
Unit Manager: Candace White
Production Secretary: Ayo Babatunde
Compositing: Yunsik Noh
Production Assistant: Robbie Gemmel
Music: Rob Morsberger
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Audio Mix: John Jenkins
Animation: Mitch Butler
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0229297. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.