From Petri Dish to Dinner Plate: In-Vitro Meat

Links:

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_in-vitro_meat_is_good_for_you/P2/

http://www.new-harvest.org/faq.htm

The article I found was a Seed Magazine interview with Jason Matheny, the co-founder and director of New Harvest, a company that is striving to develop meat that is grown in a laboratory. The goal of New Harvest is to educate people on the world’s meat addiction and to produce a meat substitute that would help create a solution to the problems associated with the production of meat. The nonprofit company was founded in 2004.

Cultured meat has the potential to completely change the way people live. According to Matheny, worldwide meat consumption will double by the year 2040. He says that meat production currently accounts for an entire fifth of the world’s carbon footprint. Additionally, he points out, meat accounts for many diseases that are transferred through the animals we raise to eat. If this is true, then we need to find ways of producing meat that are not only more humanely produced and safer to eat, but also less polluting to the environment. This is what New Harvest hopes to accomplish through their work.

In-vitro meat is created, according to the New Harvest website, by “taking a number of cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient-rich medium. Cells are capable of multiplying so many times in culture that, in theory, a single cell could be used to produce enough meat to feed the global population for a year. After the cells are multiplied, they are attached to a sponge-like ‘scaffold’ and soaked with nutrients. They may also be mechanically stretched to increase their size and protein content. The resulting cells can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat, such as sausage, hamburger, or chicken nuggets.” If researchers were able to discover a way of industrialize this process, the cost of meat could potentially be lowered. However, at the moment cultured meat is only able to occur on a small scale in a laboratory setting under observation from skilled workers. It is not yet commercially available.

Matheny also pointed out the many challenges that New Harvest faces in developing its product. He pointed out that it is extremely difficult to make in-vitro meat appealing because it is hard to get the correct textures and flavor profiles. However, if they were able to make a passable alternative to meat, it would be great for consumers. This meat is not genetically modified in any way, making it healthier. Also, instead of meat causing diseases, it could actually become better for us. Fat content could be closely controlled so, says Matheny, we could be consuming “hamburgers that prevented heart attacks rather than causing them.”

Overall this is a technology that is still being developed but has enormous potential for the future. I encourage you all to follow the links I posted and read the articles because there are a lot of points that I didn’t bring up here that will enhance the class discussion.

Sources:
Billings, Lee. "Why In-Vitro Meat is Good for You." Seed Magazine. Seed Media Group, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

New Harvest: Advancing Meat Substitutes. New Harvest, 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

Elizabeth Crawford--Slam Poetry

This is a poem entitled “Pretty.” Katie Makkai performed this piece at the National Poetry Slam, a performance poetry competition where teams from across the country participate in a large-scale poetry slam. This piece is from the 2002 competition.

It is hard not to pay attention when someone begins a slam poem. Clearly it is different from just reciting or reading a poem out of a book. The feeling and raw emotion behind the words is what draws me to this art form; you can see from this clip that by the end of the piece the artist is almost crying with the depth of her emotion. The poets really feel the words they are saying, and that shows in their performances. In this particular piece, Makkai is expressing her detestation for the word “pretty” and questions society for making young women feel insecure about themselves. She recounts the story of her mother trying to “fix” her, as if how she was wasn’t enough, and vows that no daughter of hers will ever be considered “merely pretty,” because that word could not define everything she will be. The personal journey that Makkai relates to the listener really helps us to understand what is being expressed, as does the passion she uses to relay how important this subject is to her.

In my opinion, this slam poem is art because it is something that took the artist time, skill, and effort to produce. It makes the audience think hard about the subject and presents it in an accessible way, which, to me, is a characteristic of art. The theory from the Quartet of Traditions that best describes this piece is the Emotionalist theory because it explores psychological experiences and feelings. The name of this theory says it all: this piece is about expressing emotion.

The ancestors of this work of art date back to the time humans first started communicating. Oral traditions and storytelling are similar to slam poetry because in order to tell a good story it must be able to grab the listener and hold their attention. To do this it must be filled with emotion so that it is relatable to the audience. Every culture has a history of oral traditions, but one that stands out to me is African traditions. According to Central Oregon Community College, “traditionally, Africans have revered good stories and storytellers, as have most past and present peoples around the world who are rooted in oral cultures and traditions. Ancient writing traditions do exist on the African continent, but most Africans today, as in the past, are primarily oral peoples, and their art forms are oral rather than literary.” The stories of African cultures are often performed alongside songs or dances, incorporating the performance aspect of slam poetry. Another form of art that could be considered to share DNA with slam poetry is the bards and troubadours of medieval times. Though, according to the University of Idaho, the stories of the bards and troubadours were performed in the form of songs, the element of orally and emotionally recounting events is still present, especially since a song can be considered a type of poem.

I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did! Have I opened your eyes to a new form of art and expression that you didn’t know about before?


Sources:

Makkai, Kate. “Pretty.” 2002. Online video clip. YouTube. Accessed on 8 September 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0.

Agatucci, Cora. "African Storytelling." Central Oregon Community College, 2008. Web. 8 Sept. 2009. http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrstory.htm.

"Bards, Music, and Arthurian Legend." University of Idaho, 13 Apr. 1997. Web. 8 Sept. 2009. .