After dinner Jeff asked Samantha if she would like to go to a movie and was pleasantly surprised by her response, “Jeff I appreciate the offer but aren’t you curious about the process of culturing meat? It could impact your family operation substantially!”
Jeff, thinking that Samantha was reading his mind, was astonished by his luck. Not only was he enjoying the date, but Samantha was curious about his family’s cattle operation. “You truly are a researcher,” Jeff smiled. “Let’s head back to the office. I can call my friend Manny who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I know he will have heard of this.”
Manny was a newcomer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was working under the Director of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). He was working late that evening and was just finishing an inspection report when he received the phone call. “Food Safety and Inspection Service,” he barked into the phone.
“Manny? This is Jeff, I’m glad I caught you tonight. I just heard some interesting news and I knew you would be the man to call. What do you know about certified cultured beef?”
Manny smiled to himself, “I thought I might be hearing from you Jeff. As you know, there has been a high percentage of obesity in the United States, and the USDA has just issued a new food pyramid. There are increased concerns associated with the American diet and it is all over the press. In answer to this new area of concern, several agencies within the USDA have collaborated on funding research regarding meat production. Researchers from the University of Maryland have identified two possible methods of in vitro meat production.”
Jeff was looking at Samantha in disbelief, “You mean to tell me that a steak can be grown in a Petri dish?”
“Well,” said Manny, “there is a little more to it than that Jeff. The first technique is called scaffolding. Scaffolding consists of proliferating embryonic myoblasts or skeletal muscle cells called satellite cells. By introducing several environmental cues, myotubes and eventually myofibrils can be harvested, cooked, and used for ground boneless meat, which is a highly consumable product in the United States.”
Still puzzled, Jeff asked Manny, “So what you’re saying is that sheets of skeletal muscle cells can be multiplied, then ground and cooked to produce hamburger, is that it? That still doesn’t explain the offer of a certified cultured beef steak during tonight’s dinner.”
“That would include the second in vitro technique or the self organizing technique,” said Manny. “This technique is grounded in a goldfish-based study. Again, skeletal muscle explants were placed in a culture media for seven days. Explants have an advantage in that they contain all of the cells that make up muscle in similar proportions as the biological animal. The results were that the explants’ surface area increased by 79%. This would lead to larger meat products including your certified culture beef steak. As you know, Jeff, from our meat science class, traditional beef products contain high quantities of omega-6 fatty acids. With this new form of biotechnology, we can replace the normal omega-6 fatty acids with the healthier omega-3 fatty acids.”
Jeff was beginning to understand the ramifications to this scientific procedure. He was torn between his love for scientific advancements and the generational history of his family’s business. Samantha saw Jeff’s facial expressions turn from curiosity to pain and then back to curiosity. She was still trying to read his emotions when a look of excitement came across Jeff’s face. “Manny, you can’t mass produce meat in this manner, can you? Muscular tissue needs more than a varied culture to grow and become edible. What about connective tissue? What about the palatability and taste of marbling? How can you get a prime steak grown under glass?”
Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/cultured_beef/cultured_beef2.asp
Copyright © 1999–2010 by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Please see our usage guidelines, which outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this work.
