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WhyNow's avatar

Would you eat 'steak' grown in a 3D printer?

Asked by WhyNow (2839points) August 4th, 2022
30 responses
“Great Question” (5points)
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Answers

gorillapaws's avatar

I don’t eat beef. There are times when I miss it (like a Thai beef salad, or beautiful homemade beef and pork meatballs). 3d printed steak isn’t one of those times. That said, I’d probably try 3d printed chicken or pork.

RocketGuy's avatar

I’d want to know what’s in it first.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

Probably not. I do think we will see industrial, lab grown meat in our lifetimes. While humane and potentially more sustainable I will wait until the health consequences are established. I won’t eat substitutes like beyond meat either. It’s not any healthier and may be worse than the real thing.

JLeslie's avatar

I would. I wouldn’t be the first to try it, and I wouldn’t eat it all of the time, but I would be willing to incorporate it into my diet.

I like the idea of not forcing cows to be pregnant and have babies and not slaughtering animals.

RayaHope's avatar

That sounds very unappealing and weird. I agree with @JLeslie I don’t like the idea of animals dying for us but I know that will never stop. Plant-based “meat” is the way to go.

KNOWITALL's avatar

I’m with @JLeslie, not a big deal to me. I already use protein shakes and supplements daily instead of ‘real food’ for most meals so why not. But she can go first. Ha!
Seriously, we have to do better as a nation with weight management tools. Baby steps.

Mimishu1995's avatar

I would. The idea sounds weird, but I don’t see anything unappealing about it. In fact, I consider it fascinating. As long as it tastes good and doesn’t come with any health consequences, I would welcome it.

JLeslie's avatar

It’s Star Trek. Will it come perfectly cooked and ready to eat?

Zaku's avatar

I think I’ll wait till it’s 23rd Century technology, or later,

(Though I didn’t think I’d eat Impossible Burger, until I learned a little more, tried and liked it pretty well.)

eyesoreu's avatar

Would taste synthetic, don’t want to end up like Seth Brundle…bzzzzzzz!

ragingloli's avatar

We live in times were most of the food that people consume comes out of a factory, and are assembled with chemicals whose names most people could not even pronounce, in order to reduce costs and extend shelf life.
But it is lab grown meat that worries people?

LadyMarissa's avatar

Living bovine stem cells were incorporated into “bio-inks” that were then placed in the company’s 3D printer

Something about that description doesn’t sound very appetizing to me!!! Yet, IF I ever saw a piece IRL, I’d probably be willing to taste a small piece out of curiosity. Don’t see it becoming a staple at my house tho!!!

elbanditoroso's avatar

I would try it once, just to see what it tastes like and close it really is to a ‘real’ steak.

But I’m pessimistic that it will be anything close, and I don’t have much hope that I will like it.

JLeslie's avatar

It doesn’t say anything about it being healthier does it? Maybe I read too fast. Won’t it still have fat and cholesterol and whatever “bad” things that are in red meat?

WhyNow's avatar

I guess the things that me (gen Y) skeptical… self driving cars, 3D printed steak
will be common in a couple of generations. Soon you’ll be able to print dinner and car
parts in the same afternoon!

ragingloli's avatar

@JLeslie
Just like plant based meat, it is not about being “healthier”. It is about having the same or similar eating experience as meat, without having to kill or enslave animals for it. It is about ethics and morality.

RocketGuy's avatar

Also, they won’t need large fields for grazing, which would result in environmental benefits.

JLeslie's avatar

@ragingloli That was my initial impression, which I alluded to in my first response, but then I saw some other answers on the thread and thought maybe I missed something. Thanks for clarifying.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

I would try it once. To see if I liked it.

Smashley's avatar

I’d try it, but I generally don’t make ultra-processed foods a part of my diet. If I needed/wanted to reduce my meat consumption, I’d just reduce my meat consumption.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@RocketGuy Cows produce methane which is not good for the environment. Although with all our problems, cow farts surely can’t be the biggest. :)

gorillapaws's avatar

@KNOWITALL It’s not just the cow farts (which is pretty funny). It’s the efficiency of the land use. Potatoes to Beef is something like 17:1 in efficiency with respect to land use. In other words if your 1 acre plot of land could grow 100k calories on it in potatoes, it would take 17 acres of land to grow an equivalent 100k calories of beef. There’s also the significant increase in water use for beef.

Then there’s the opportunity costs of those extra 16 acres. They could be trees extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and providing habitat to wildlife, wind farms or solar panels producing electricity, or wetland buffer zones that prevent fertilizer runoff and algae blooms downriver, etc.

I do agree though that @JLeslie can go first!

LadyMarissa's avatar

@KNOWITALL Apparently cow farts are MORE lethal than you or I can imagine!!! New Zealand is planning on taxing cow & sheep farmers IF their animals burp or fart too much as it’s believed to be killing the ozone!!!

RocketGuy's avatar

There’s a supplement you can give to cows to reduce their methane production: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/business/cow-burps-methane-feed-supplement-mootral-spc-intl/index.html

LadyMarissa's avatar

IF you have good grass growing in your pasture, you shouldn’t need supplements. Quality hay in the winter should help solve the problem as well.

WhyNow's avatar

@LadyMarissa I have good grass growing in my balcony. Please don’t tell the police.

LadyMarissa's avatar

^^ Address please…Accomplices seldom IF ever call the police!!! Anyway, since it’s growing outside, I bet they already know.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@gorillapaws Interesting!

Looks like LA has the worst air quality in the US so I’ll stick with the cow farts. At least they’re delicious and cute.

RayaHope's avatar

@WhyNow So you’re the smoke I’ve been smelling!!

Zaku's avatar

@ragingloli I get as much of my food as I can from the local growers’ markets.

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