The Fake Or The Real Thing

 Can a chicken be cloned? Or a filet mignon copied? They may someday soon and wind up in our supermarkets. It may sound like a science fiction story but it's true.

Regular contributor Kim Severson wrote about this new facet of the food industry in today's New York Times Food section. Cloning has been around for decades, and a form of it is interesting a number of people.Ms. Severson spent time at Upside Foods in San Francisco. The scientists there take healthy cells from chicken ad create cutlets that even taste better than the actual birds. They soon will be experimenting with beef and lobster. The idea for this came from Dr. Uma Valeti, a cardiologist who helped start the company in 2015. He was convinced that the same medical technology used to grow stem cells or repair a human heart  could now grow food. Now tissue engineers and scientists  in several countries are trying to transform stem cells in the pricey Wagyu steak, oysters and sushi-grade salmon. Nearly three billion dollars in investments are funding this , the money coming from such giants as Archer-Daniel-Midlands and the Brazlian meat giant JBS. Bill Gates and Leonardo di Caprio, a big environmentalist are also funding it as is the Agriculture Department and Qatar Investment Authority

Despite their potential good, lab grown meats have their down side. Opponents say that the process ignores both culture and nature. It could be scientifically risky,  creating potential allergens and untested byproducts.It could also create waste that would be a biohazard. Stem cell meats also ignore the time tested regenerative agricultural practices in favor of unproven gains of environmental gain. Alan Lewis, one skeptic who works for the Natural Grocers health food chain. He questions why eat this meat when you can have the plant based ones. The leap to consume synthetic protein seems entirely unnecessary. How does synthetic meat come into being? It begins with stem cells from an animal biopsy, an egg or even a feather. These multiply rapidly in a stainless steel tank called a bioreactor or cultivator. The cells feed on a complex broth that contains nutrients like carbohydrates and amino acids. There's also some type of unnamed growth factor that can turn into muscle fat or connective tissue.  Taste and nutrition are controlled by cell selection and the broth they grew in. Some find the meat tastes better than the real thing and chefs like Jose Andres and Dominqu Cren are behind it.Yet only one in ten Americans would try this while only a third in Britian said they would give it a shot.

Is cultured chicken, beef or lobster the food of the future? Possibly. If plant based burgers  can make it , then so can this,