The world's first "test-tube" meat, a hamburger made from a
cow's stem cells, will be produced this fall, Dutch scientist
Mark Post told a major science conference on Sunday. Post's aim
is to invent an efficient way to produce skeletal muscle tissue
in a laboratory that exactly mimics meat, and eventually replace
the entire meat-animal industry. The ingredients for his first
burger are "still in a laboratory phase," he said, but by fall
"we have committed ourselves to make a couple of thousand of
small tissues, and then assemble them into a hamburger." Post,
chair of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands,
said his project is funded with 250,000 euros from an anonymous
private investor motivated by "care for the environment, food
for the world, and interest in life-transforming technologies."
Post spoke at a symposium titled "The Next Agricultural
Revolution" at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver. Speakers said they
aim to develop such "m