SuperMeat - Crowdfunding Pohl/Kornbluth's Chicken Little
In their wonderful 1952 novel The Space Merchants, Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth described a remarkable meat that you could grow in unlimited quantities:
You skimmed the patch with your skimmer and slung it down the well, where it would be baled, or processed into glucose to feed Chicken Little, who would be sliced and packed to feed people from Baffinland to Little America.
(Read more about Pohl's Chicken Little)
In the 1950's, you waited for big corporations to create meat in a vat. But not today! No, we don't.
Israeli startup SuperMeat is ready for you to believe in them.
(Crowdfunding science fiction - SuperMeat)
SuperMeat’s co-founder and co-CEO, Koby Barak, himself a longtime vegan and animal rights activist, said his company’s cultured meat will be both kosher and vegan-friendly, and he has the supporters to prove it.
“I have spoken to about 10 rabbis and I don’t see any problem. It will be kosher,” Barak told JTA. “The vast majority of the vegan-vegetarian movement is very supportive, and we thank them for really supporting us.”
Among rabbis and vegan activists, though, the debate over exactly what to make of SuperMeat, and cultured meat in general, is far from resolved.
SuperMeat is not the first cultured meat company, but it is the first to focus on chicken.
Production is to work like this: Cells will be harmlessly taken from a chicken and put into a special machine that simulates the bird’s biology, allowing them to self-assemble into meat.
Barak said the process could revolutionize how the world eats, striking a major blow against environmental degradation, animal suffering and global health pandemics. Other meats could be made using more or less the same process, he said.
So far, they've raised $60,000, with two months to go.
I should mention that the earliest mention of the idea of growing meat in test tubes is from Unto Us A Child Is Born, a 1933 short story by David H. Keller. See the entry for synthetic food.
Via Indiegogo SuperMeat; this article from Times of Israel presents two rabbis who discuss whether or not this meat would be kosher - fascinating. Thanks to (((Æthelind))) for passing on the tip and the reference for this article.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/1/2016)
A Beautiful Visualization Of Compact Food
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...' - Edward Page Mitchell (1879).
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
Starfall Manufacturing Drugs In Space
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'