Real problem, idiot solution
Brit media are full of Comrade Brin's latest bit of futuristic idiocy, synthetic beef.

The problem is real, as the main researcher Mark Post describes articulately:

"Cows are very inefficient, they require 100g of vegetable protein to produce only 15g of edible animal protein. So we need to feed the cows a lot so that we can feed ourselves. We lose a lot of food that way. [With cultured meat] we can make it more efficient because we have all the variables under control. We don't need to kill the cow and it doesn't [produce] any methane."

But the solution is highly dubious, and Comrade Brin's description is a negative selling point:

Brin said he was wanted to invest in technologies that were "on the cusp of viability. If it succeeds there, it can be really transformative for the world." He acknowledged that some people would probably think synthetic meat was science fiction. "I actually think that's a good thing. If what you're doing is not seen by some people as science fiction, it's probably not transformative enough."

Transformative. The Occupy word, presumably with the Occupy meaning. Comrade Brin would do better to shut up and let Post do the speaking.

Aside from Brin's Stalinism, let's consider the scaled-up version of this test tube. Stem cells are still animal cells. Vast refineries full of stem cells will need to consume vast quantities of oxygen and nutrients, all manufactured from fertilized and harvested plants; and they will produce vast quantities of CO2 and organic waste.



The system might be more efficient than real cows, or it might be less efficient. No way to tell until it gets running with a full supply chain. The synthetic process must use specifically planted and extremely processed crops instead of naturally growing grasses; and it must use gasoline and electricity to replace the chewing and digestion and walking and mooing and screwing of real cows.

Think of it this way: A real cow eating real grass is a pure solar-powered food machine. Grass converts sun and rain and CO2 into starches and sugars, and the cow converts the starches and sugars into protein and fat. Most grazing land can't be used for intensive crops, so the cow isn't displacing anything economically useful. The rancher supplements the grass with grown crops in bad seasons, but the vast majority of the cow's weight comes purely from the sun.

So the simpler solution is: Require cattle to be raised and slaughtered the old-fashioned way, pastured from start to finish, with no high-quantity high-speed feedlots. Slaughtering should follow kosher or halal rules. This will make beef much more expensive, and people will eat less of it. Better for health, more respectful to the cows.
  ¶ 4:55 AM