Is Fake Meat "Food"

It is made in a lab... by smart people...

Lab-grown foods such as the Impossible Burger represent the ultimate conflict in health information: "Experts" tell us that plant-based diets are healthy, but we're also told that processed foods are unhealthy. The Impossible Burger, the Beyond Burger and other faux meat products are plant-based but highly processed "foods". Not only a highly processed product, but highly processed ingredients. Seed and vegetable oils are processed just like petro chemicals. Heat, pressure and chemicals refine the oils to be edible. So processed ingredients are combined with other processed ingredients and called "food". Although the safety of the heme in Impossible Burgers has been criticized over the years because it's a genetically engineered product, no current research suggests it's actually unsafe. Unfortunately, the FDA does not require proof that food is safe. It only pulls food off the market that is proven unsafe. So it may take years for genetically altered, lab-grown food to be proven unsafe. Is this how we want to operate? Rolling the dice on a fad that may well harm consumers? Humans have been eating meat for eons. 8,500 years ago North Americans were using arrowheads to gather food. The arrowheads are still around. No one needs an arrowhead to gather lettuce. The evidence is clear. Even a presumably unsophisticated society saw the value of a diet high in natural protein. Their evidence was not from a test tube, but a functioning human body that could run, and then turn around and throw the spear again so they might eat the next day.

But Dave, cattle are destroying the earth! Huh, there were 30 MILLION buffalo roaming around the middle of America when we got here. This resulted in rich grasslands with topsoil twelve feet deep. Somehow the buffalo knew to rotate and not eat where they just relieved themselves. So the evidence that quadrupeds create rich, fertile grassland when rotated properly is there to be examined. Allan Savory makes a compelling case that rotational grazing is the only way to save the earth from desertification. https://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI

It is not proven that lab-grown meat is healthy. It is abundantly clear that beef is safe for consumption but what about health. Red meat contains significant levels of B vitamins, including B12, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, folate, niacin, and vitamin B6. Eating red meat is one of the easiest ways to ensure adequate intake of your B vitamins. Beef is an excellent source of iron. The iron in beef helps your body produce hemoglobin, a protein that helps your blood carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. An iron-poor diet can lead to a risk of iron deficiency anemia, meaning the body isn’t getting enough oxygen. Beef is a good source of zinc, which the body needs to heal damaged tissue and support a healthy immune system. B₁₂ is synthesized by only certain bacteria and archaeons, but not by plants or animals. The synthesized B₁₂ is transferred and accumulated in animal tissues, even in certain plant tissues via microbial interaction. Meats and milks of herbivorous ruminant animals are good sources of B₁₂ for humans. Unfortunately, most humans get B vitamins from cyanide. The most common form of B12 in the world is entirely synthetic. We make it from hydrogen cyanide. It's called cyanocobalamin. It's a cyanide-based B12. So if there are B vitamins in lab-grown meat... probably started as cyanide. Children and adolescents also need healthy amounts of zinc to make sure they thrive and grow. We do not know any benefits of lab-grown meat...

From the Center for Food Safety:

Lab-cultured "meat" should not be allowed to use the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) regulatory loophole wherein companies can hire their own experts to evaluate their products, often in secret without any notice to the public or FDA. GRAS is an inappropriate designation because the consensus among knowledgeable experts regarding the safety of lab-cultured "meat" does not yet exist. Instead, FDA should require that lab-cultured "meat" products be regulated more thoroughly as food additives. "Meat" companies should submit complete food additive petitions for each of the novel ingredients used to produce these "meats" as well as a final food approval petition for the entire product. The production facilities, like all meat processing plants, should then have USDA inspectors on-site monitoring the process and inspecting the "meat." The USDA announced in August that it will start the process of developing regulations for these new kinds of "meat". Adequate regulation will be necessary to address the concerns raised in this blog. Overall, due to the novel nature of lab-cultured "meat," the lack of transparency from the companies involved, and the myriad potential health risks to consumers, rigorous regulation of this product is vitally important.

https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/blog/6458/is-lab-grown-meat-healthy-and-safe-to-consume

There is limited scientific evidence on the safety of lab-grown meat. However, it is generally considered to be safe by most experts. The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Health Canada have all issued statements indicating that lab-grown meat could be safe to eat if it is produced under strict regulatory control. However, further research is needed to fully understand the potential health impacts of consuming lab-grown meat. The question becomes, who owns the regulators. The FDA is far from independent and far from overly cautious. Unfortunately, they bend in the direction their funding partners require. The handwriting is on the wall. Big Food wants to patent what we eat, so we can only get it from them. Big Pharma wants to patent human health, so you can only get it from them. This path is unhealthy and dangerous.