South Carolina University Cultures Lab-Grown Meat

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BY SAMANTHA MCCLENDON

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It may sound like something out of a science-fiction movie, but it's true. Scientist Vladimir Mironov at the Medical University of South Carolina says after 10 years of research, he's found a way to grow quote- "cultured" meat.
ABCNews:"Using bioengineering to create meat in a lab."
Vladimir Mironov: "Skeletal muscle fibers, you put them together, they fuse and create skeletal muscle fibers. This is elemental for any meat."

Mironov says the benefits of lab-grown meat include the elimination of health threats like mad cow disease -- and could reduce global warming, since livestock farms generate tons of methane gas. And PETA is funding the research because it would prevent the slaughter of animals.

But one ABC anchor believes we should take better care of the meat we have before looking to new ways to make it.

"I mean how about adjusting what is in your meat by feeding your livestock different things? You can control all that by giving them a nice environment. And they won't need all those hormones and anti-biotics."

Mironov says they can adjust the taste and fat content of the meat -- and in an interview with Fox News he says, don't write it off just because it's hi-tech.

"There is a certain yuck factor that people describe when they hear a story like this. Meat grown in a lab? Eww. They had that reaction. How do you think you can overcome that?"
Vladimir Mironov: "Very simple. People are always afraid of new technology. But who's afraid, for example of hydroponic tomato? Why are you afraid of hydroponic meat?"

But a blogger on Citypages.com quotes a scholar-helper who says: look to the future.

"Further out, if we have interplanetary exploration, people will need to produce food in space, and you can't take a cow with you."

When asked what his creation tastes like, Mironov said no one has tasted it yet because it's illegal according to the USDA -- but it's set to debut in August as part of an international symposium on in vitro meat.

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