this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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75
This pig’s bacon was delicious—and she’s alive and well (www.motherjones.com)
submitted 7 hours ago by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I’m in San Francisco, at an Italian joint just south of Golden Gate Park, enjoying meatballs and bacon not made of meat in the traditional sense but of plants mixed with “cultivated” pork fat. Dawn, you see, donated a small sample of fat, which a company called Mission Barns got to proliferate in devices called bioreactors by providing nutrients like carbohydrates, amino acids, and vitamins—essentially replicating the conditions in her body. Because so much of the flavor of pork and other meats comes from the animal’s fat, Mission Barns can create products like sausages and salami with plants but make them taste darn near like sausages and salami.

I’ve been struggling to describe the experience, because cultivated meat short-circuits my brain—my mouth thinks I’m eating a real pork meatball, but my brain knows that it’s fundamentally different and that Dawn (pictured above) didn’t have to die for it. This is the best I’ve come up with: It’s Diet Meat. Just as Diet Coke is an approximation of the real thing, so too are cultivated meatballs. They simply taste a bit less meaty, at least to my tongue. Which is understandable, as the only animal product in this food is the bioreactor-grown fat.

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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 1 points 19 minutes ago

This is the best I’ve come up with: It’s Diet Meat. Just as Diet Coke is an approximation of the real thing, so too are cultivated meatballs.

I hope that wasn't meant to be a pitch for it. Diet Coke tastes like ass.

They simply taste a bit less meaty

See that's the disconnect - diet Coke doesn't taste like Coke that's less Coke-y, it tastes like Coke that had the sugar replaced with a scoop of Grandpa's ashes and a dash of betadine.

If we've made the meat equivalent to diet Coke, the best course of action is to just skip that nastiness and cook up some tofu or paneer or something.

If we've made the meat that's just a little less meaty, okay cool, I'll give it a shot.

...but those two are NOT the same thing.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 10 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

If you can make ethical bacon, you can also make ethical long bacon

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 1 points 25 minutes ago

Jeffrey Dahmer is interested

[–] knightly@pawb.social 1 points 28 minutes ago

I've been waiting for this for years. I can't wait to eat the first celebrity that donates some cells for a tie-in promo with Taco Bell. That shit is going to be so mid and our nightmare cyberpunk future is incomplete without it. XD

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 70 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Simpsons did it

But for real, I am super interested in the concept of cultivated meat. I’m no vegan, but if less animals need to be mistreated and murdered for my steak, I’m not going to complain.

[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 6 hours ago

I mean I think in this case Norse mythology beat the Simpsons to this at least a few centuries before with Heidrun

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world -5 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

If the animal has been given the best possible life it could have right to the moment of death would you still have misgivings about meat?

[–] pageflight@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Most animals behave pretty clearly as if they don't want to die, and humans have been really bad, historically, at deciding correctly who is person enough to mind being enslaved/genocided/colonialized.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Warfare would look quite different if the winner had to eat the loser.

[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

Bosmer lore in a nutshell.

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 22 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I barely have misgivings about meat as it is. But yes, an animal that is raised on quality feed, and given space to grow before being harvested is always going to be preferable to the industrial levels of farming that capitalism requires to meet demands.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 9 points 6 hours ago

Makes sense I enjoy meat as well but I try to stay away from factory farmed meats and mostly get meat from family farms or hunting but that's not a luxury that everyone's able to do.

It blows me away that some towns or cities only have a walmart for their grocery store.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, it is still murder and their life was not full. I don't care how pampered the animal was its life was still cut short and its purpose was solely as a commodity for human consumption.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Sure it’s murder but meat is delicious and I care for my animals before I slaughter them and use everything I can.

[–] pageflight@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I can't tell from the article or Mission Barn's page whether they need a new sample for every batch, or just needed one sample to seed their bioreactors. I'm not sure (as someone who avoids meat for ethical and environmental reasons) if there's a big difference.

I'm actually happy with Beyond burgers/sausages when I do want meat taste, but nice to have more options. (Mozzarella and Parmesan are what I'd look for next, though Rebel Cheese is doing a good job with some more cheese-platter varieties.)

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

It may not be an every batch thing but you would need more samples at least eventually. Cells have division limits. While these are somewhat bypassed in these types of setups you do run into issues for longer term.

[–] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

I'm just gonna stick to beans

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 12 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

One day they’ll breed an animal that makes it clear it wants to be eaten.

[–] OZFive@lemmy.world 19 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Ameglian_Major_Cow

the Cow was the Dish of the Day at Milliways, which arrived when Zaphod Beeblebrox (accompanied by Arthur, Ford, and Trillian) requested to 'meet the meat'. It was described as a large dairy animal, a "large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type." It was said to have large watery eyes, as well as small horns and what might have been an ingratiating smile on its lips. The creature seems peaceful and at ease, and at one point is described to have "mooed."

The creature offers Zaphod and his party his shoulder, braised in a white wine sauce, then goes on to offer other parts of its body, having worked hard to fatten itself up through force-feeding itself for months. Eventually, after Arthur and Trillian have expressed their shock and Ford has expressed his disinterest, Zaphod requests four rare steaks and the Dish of the Day goes off to shoot himself, telling Arthur not to worry, as he says "I'll be very humane."[1]

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 hours ago

Indeed what I was referencing.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Okja kind of has similar themes about a fictional animal bred for food.

[–] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 hours ago

Beyond Lies the Wub