Guilt-free food - stem cell burgers

Food critics may have panned the world's first beefburger grown from cow stem cells. But from their descriptions of its being too dry and not tasty enough, it sounded just like the burgers sold by a certain multinational fast food chain. Since taste and texture can be improved, we must deem this lab experiment, by a team of Dutch scientists, a success.

For environmentalists and animal welfare activists, that is good news. If meat can be grown in labs and sold commercially, fewer animals will need to be slaughtered, and less water and grazing land used. That's a big plus for the environment.

The burgers were made from cells extracted from two cows. The cells first develop into muscle tissue and then small strands of meat. It takes 20,000 strands to produce a 140-gram patty. So at the moment, it's still prohibitively expensive. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated €250,000 (HK$2.6 million) to the research so far. But Mark Post, the lead scientist, believes the new food technology can be commercialised in a decade or two.

Green and animal rights groups have long pointed out that the modern food industry, despite its appearance of humanity and efficiency, is environmentally unsustainable and cruel. Many people turn to vegetarianism not because they don't like meat but because they think it is unethical to cause suffering to animals.

Post and his co-researchers have found a way to satisfy people's taste for meat while overcoming such moral concerns. In principle, they can produce meat from the stem cells of other species. Cultivating meat from stem cells is not genetic engineering. It does not involve manipulating genes, which apparently causes unease among many people. Instead, it just guides the cells to develop into edible meat. Post fed it to his children because he believes it's completely safe.

Food lovers will need to be persuaded. But this new food technology has the potential to make the world a more sustainable and less cruel place.