Is "Franken-Meat" a Good Idea?

Bill Gates is part of a group of who have invested $17 million to Memphis Meats, which is a startup company that is growing beef, chicken and duck from animal cells.

The good news is that no actual animals are involved in the meat growing, just their cells, which are grown in a laboratory environment. I imagine that a few animals were killed to obtain their cells, but nobody is talking about that.

The idea that one day environmentally polluting and ethically questionable concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) could be gone from the face of the earth is an appealing one.

The meat is grown in a lab for four to six weeks, but currently this meat is far too expensive to bring to market, at about $9,000.00 per pound for chicken and about $18,000.00 per pound for beef.

What is not known is that what negative health impact will these alterations that allow this meat to be grown in a lab, have on the people who consume this meat?

This lab grown meat could have the potential of doing what GMOs are doing to the health of consumers.

This won't be known until this meat has been consumed for some time.

Look what happened for decades to the health of people who consumed margarine, before butter was declared better?

This whole thing makes me think of the old Chiffon Margarine commercial that stated - " It's not nice to fool Mother Nature".

Time will tell if this meat is safe or not, but my gut feeling is that it won't be safe and If some day that is the only meat that is available, I think that I will stick to vegetables.

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