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Dutch scientists served up their creation of a hamburger this week made in a laboratory
from cow stem cells.
The public unveiling took place in London. Volunteers took the taste test and offered
up a review of the product that took five years to develop.
Mark Post, Professor of Physiology, Maastricht University: "Considering that we don't have
any fat in there yet, so obviously that's a factor that affects taste, but other than
that the consistency and the taste is, in my mind, pretty close."
Hanni Ruetzler, Austrian nutritionist: "There's quite an intense taste, it's close to meat.
It's not that juicy but the consistency is perfect."
Josh Schonwald, U.S. journalist: "The absence is I feel, like, the fat. But the bite feels
like a conventional hamburger."
As one of the lead researchers on the project at Maastricht University in the Netherlands,
Mark Post developed the burger, and he hopes synthetic meat could eventually help feed
the world and fight climate change.
Mark Post, Professor of Physiology, Maastricht University: "I think that most people don't
realise that the current meat production is at its maximum and is not going to supply
sufficient meat for the growing demand in the coming 40 years. So we need to come up
with an alternative, there's no question. And this can be an ethical and environmentally
friendly way to produce meat."
The public frying of the hamburger grown in the lab also spurred debate.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA, a long-time opponent of confinement
style agriculture, agrees this research has promise.
Ben Williamson, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) spokesman: "Today's meat
industry causes enormous animal suffering, and environmental damage, and if in vitro
technology can be kinder to animals, be kinder to the planet, help alleviate world hunger
and make the food supply safer then surely that's something everyone would support."
The taste tube burger's price tag is hard to swallow. At $300,000, one could expect
fries and a shake with the culinary creation.
London residents were mixed on the development.
London resident: "Test tube meat is wrong, it's not right. These things shouldn't be
going on. It's really, really disgusting, it's horrible, it's unnatural, it's not organic
and it's poison basically."
London resident: "I think it's great because I don't think people should be eating meat.
I would eat artificial meat."