Chew on this: Steak grown in the lab

Ian Haysom
Times Colonist
Saturday, August 20, 2005

Food, glorious food. Succulent steaks on the barbecue. Sizzling sausages. Pork chops in red wine. Slow-cooked, rosemary-infused rack of lamb.

And bacon! The delicious aroma wafting through the house. Next to newly mown grass, it's the best smell on the planet.

I am, I admit, a meataholic. My meat of choice is lamb. Braised lamb shanks, rack of lamb, lamb roast, lamb stew -- over the years I have probably eaten the equivalent of a small flock.

Across the street from where I live there are sheep. In the spring, tiny little lambs gambol across the field, presenting a picture-postcard panorama of cute. Sometimes I look at these little lambs and feel guilty about the fact I will soon be eating them. Mostly, I imagine them on the grill.

We meat eaters, most of us anyway, don't like to think of our roasts and T-bones as dead meat. We don't think of the abattoirs, the bullet to the head of Daisy the cow or Porky the pig.

I do, I admit, have a problem with turkey and chicken -- particularly when I'm preparing them -- because you can't disguise the fact that, even stripped of its feathers, there's a naked dead bird in the middle of the table, unceremoniously plomped on a serving dish, with its legs in the air.

This week, I read a remarkable article -- in London's Guardian -- about a food revolution that one day could transform how we eat meat.

Scientists at the University of Maryland have published details of a new technique that will see fresh meat grown in a Petri dish -- without a single cow, pig or sheep being killed.

The scientists have adapted the technique of tissue engineering, where single cells are multiplied into full tissues. You remove a cell from an animal and begin growing meat from that single cell.

"With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply," according to Jason Matheny, an agricultural scientist at the University of Maryland.

There's still a lot of work to do -- around texture and flavour -- but the scientists point out that cultured meat could actually be healthier than dead meat because its nutrient value could be tailored to be healthier, and it could be screened for food-borne diseases.

This, of course, creates a major conundrum for vegetarians -- those who don't eat meat because of what they perceive as cruelty to donor animals. No animals are hurt in this process. And, theoretically, you could start eradicating hunger around the world. You could grow food, literally, anywhere.

The idea of growing meat in a laboratory is not new. The Guardian points out that Winston Churchill was mooting the idea in an essay more than 70 years ago: "Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium," wrote the great warrior.

By now, you probably think laboratory meat is one of the greatest ideas you've ever heard, or future shock gone mad. It also goes against the grain, so to speak, of the organic, natural-food revolution, where more and more of us want our food free of preservatives, colourings and insecticides, and genetically unmodified.

I prefer natural everything -- whether it be wild salmon, free-range eggs or organic chicken -- because, frankly, I think it tastes better. And my guilt is somewhat assuaged by the thought that Sammy the Salmon swam around half the world, rather than being cooped up in a pen -- before I wrapped him in foil and barbecued him with lemon, onions and just a hint of soy sauce on the grill.
I have visited battery-hen farms, and been appalled at what we do to chickens who live their lives in a cage, laying eggs that roll gently into a tray beneath them. I also, once, helped a hobby farmer friend of mine take his sheep to the slaughterhouse. It was hell getting them into the back of his truck, and they were almost half-crazed by the time we got them to the abattoir. I didn't eat meat for a week.

And yet and yet. Since the first caveman cooked up a dinosaur stew, meat has been at the heart of our diets, the natural order of things. Native Indians bless -- and thank -- their fish and meat before eating them. We kill our livestock as humanely as possible. Meat is nutritious. And very tasty.

In our house, we break down gender lines when it comes to eating meat. My wife and two daughters are vegetarian, my two sons and I are meat-eaters. We sometimes eat fake meat (the Yves line in the supermarkets is pretty good, if rubbery) and we guys probably eat less meat than we did a decade ago. But I still love it.

And feel guilty about it. Albertans may not like it, but the Petri dish bacon idea has a future. Just as long as they get the smell right