Novel Solutions to a Meaty Problem

Some folks have put on their thinking caps and come up with two interesting methods for cutting down on the cutting up of animals: growing meat in the lab instead of in pastures or on factory farms and observing Meatless Monday.  Will either of these newsworthy ideas work?  Let’s find out.

Lab-Made Meat

The headline of a recent Chicago Tribune article reads this way:  “Meat from a petri dish: credible or inedible?” Yep, you got it right.  A molecular biologist named Nicholas Genovese is working on this plan at the University of Missouri, as are scientists in other countries. Basically, the goal is to grow muscle meat “multiplying endlessly a single cow, pig or chicken cell to create ton after ton of meat.”  The result would be just meat, no hooves, snouts, or other parts of the animal.

You may be pondering two questions: Could meat really be produced in a lab?  How would the stuff taste? To answer the first: yes, many scientists believe it’s possible, though it may take a long time; the common guesstimate is about 10 years.  Scientists have already grown individual organs in vitro to use for transplants. However, so far, scientists working in labs around the world have been able to grow only matchstick-size bits of cultured muscle tissue.  Regarding the taste: a TV reporter who grabbed a sample (without permission) declared it tasteless. Food scientist Joe Regenstein isn’t surprised by this. He says that meat without blood is much less tasty; that’s why fish is blander than a hamburger.   Will a lab-produced steak be safe to eat and delicious?  Only time will tell—a long time.

Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday is both an old and a relatively new idea.  The name and the concept go back to the World War I years when the FDA urged families to reduce their consumption of meat to help the war effort.  During World War II, rationing forced consumers to cut down on meat consumption.  In 2003, the idea was restarted and supported by the Center for a Livable Future, a division of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health, and more than 20 public health schools.

The movement is based in the U.S. but is catching on worldwide.  In 2009, it began to receive more publicity, including a campaign launched by Paul McCartney.  In June 2011, Aspen, Colorado became the first city to officially commit to the idea, with 20 restaurants participating.  A 2011 study found that about half of Americans are aware of the Meatless Monday initiative. 

Food process engineer Dr. Timothy Bowser likes the idea:  “I think that the spirit of the meatless/meat-free Monday initiative is excellent. On the surface, it seems like the results would reduce consumption of meat and meat products by as much as 1/7^th! This could make a significant impact on some of the generally recognized factors of global warming including land use (for raising animals for food), methane production (from the food animals), water use (to raise grain consumed by animals and to produce and process meat animals), fuel use (to grow and process feed and animals), pesticide use, herbicide use, and so on.”

Robert Lawrence, founding director of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins, points out (in the Nutrition Action Newsletter) that the animals we eat  (some 9 billion produced annually) deposit about 40 times as much waste as humans do and that animal waste is a major polluter of surface water, soil, and air. He also mentions that our farming soil “has lost diversity because of the large concentrations of row crops, particularly the corn and soybeans that feed the animals we eat.” 

Why Meatless Monday and not Meatless Tuesday?  Is it just for the love of alliteration?  No.  According to Robert Lawrence, “We picked Monday because studies show that people are more likely to stick with changes in behavior if they begin them on a Monday.”

So is Meatless Monday a great idea? Here’s how two members of our site’s Advisory Board answer this question:

Dr. Tim Bowser: “It seems impossible to determine how the health of individuals participating in this program will be impacted. What will they eat instead of meat? If they consume healthy vegetables, fruits, nuts, and similar foods, with a good protein balance, then they could maintain or improve their health. However, if they are already receiving low amounts of protein, then they could be negatively impacted. Another question to ask would be this: “Will eating habits change on the other six days of the week?” For example, some persons may skip meat on Monday but gorge on meat on Tuesday (or other days of the week), thereby nullifying the impact of meatless Monday.”

Dr. Joe Regenstein: “We probably eat too much meat and so cutting back makes sense, the problem being too much every day. But eating a little bit of meat every day, especially red meat with its high iron and the easy absorbability of that iron is probably good for people, especially women during child-bearing years. And, most of these efforts focus only on meat and ignore the fact that dairy and eggs involve animals also.”

To get another scientist’s negative perspective on this movement, take a look at an article entitled “The Myth of Meatless Monday.”  (Its author, Judith L. Capper (associate professor of Dairy Science as Washington State University) writes, “We have at best a tenuous grasp on the immediate or long-term consequences of the majority of our actions.  Forget demonizing specific foods or suggesting that one single action can save the planet.”  (You can reach the article by googling its title and author.)

Want to try going meatless on Monday (or any other day)?  If you google “Meatless Monday recipes,” you’ll find several websites that suggest what to cook. 

Source(s):

Chicago Tribune  “Meat from a petri dish: Credible or inedible?” September 19, 2011
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-20/site/ct-nw-petri-meat-20110920_1_cultured-meat-animal-rights-group-greenhouse-gases

Nutrition Action Healthletter  “Fewer Cows, More Vegetables” October 20ll.

Wikipedia.  “Meatless Monday.”

Timothy J. Bowser, Ph.D. Oklahoma State University, Dept. of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Joe Regenstein, Ph.D., Cornell University, Dept. of Food Science

Animalallegiance.org “The Myth of Meatless Monday”
http://www.animalagalliance.org/images/Current_Issues/20110927_MM_White.pdf