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[url="http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/cocoon-cooker-grows-meat-and-fish-heated-animal-cells"]Cocoon Cooker Grows Meat and Fish from Heated Animal Cells[/url]

Here's a food-related invention that is even weirder than the notorious Beanzawave: The Cocoon, a concept cooker that grows meat and fish from heated animal cells in a process that looks disturbingly similar to magic animal growing capsules.

Designed by Richard Hederstierna of the Lund Institute of Technology, Cocoon took first place today in the Electrolux Design Lab Competition. Hederstierna's device uses RFID signals to discern the type of fish or meat inserted into the cooker. The meat's muscle cells, nutrients, and oxygen are heated for a preset time, and voila, delicious meat is born, sans the whole killing animals part.

In addition to preventing animal slaughter, the cooker is designed to address food shortages around the world. It's a controversial idea, to say the least, but it could also be a quick and easy way to get nutrients from meat products to populations that often have unhealthy diets. Electrolux hasn't committed to researching whether the device is feasible, but Hederstierna will receive a $7,347 prize as well as a six month paid internship at an Electrolux global design center. What do you think--would you eat meat from the Cocoon?


I don't know.... I'm just not convinced....

dragon wench wrote:What do you think--would you eat meat from the Cocoon?

Well, I won't eat it from MacDonalds, but I would consider this.

I don't know.... I'm just not convinced....

Let's just say I'd wait until a lengthy period of rigorous testing first took place. Perhaps...50 years' worth. By then I'll be over 100, and whether it's cocoon-grown food or library paste won't matter.

Zombie meaattt.....

This came a little sooner than I anticipated. It doesn't solve the fundemental problem behind the meat industry though, a seperate industry is still required to 'create' whatever this machine needs to grow meat. Probably something plantlife based. That secondary industry has always been able to 'feed the world' and solve all food crisises instantly if it just fed people directly instead of cows first.

I'm not a vegetarian though, don't get me wrong. I just prefer to stare my cows deeply in the eyes and feel guilty before I eat them.

@Loki: You said the magic word.

The more I learn the closer to vegetarianism I come.

Soylent Green is ........:laugh:


Hmmm ..tastes like chicken?

Ode to a Grasshopper wrote:The more I learn the closer to vegetarianism I come.

Do you consume all vegatarians, or just one?

Okay, I'll bite.
Only one so far, but she was delicious.

BlueSky wrote:Soylent Green is ........:laugh:


Hmmm ..tastes like chicken?

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

That's pretty fascinating, but yeah I wouldn't expect this to become a part of everyday life in a long time. I'd have no problem eating food made like this, but I bet a whole lot of people would be against this.

dragon wench wrote:[url="http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/cocoon-cooker-grows-meat-and-fish-heated-animal-cells"]Cocoon Cooker Grows Meat and Fish from Heated Animal Cells[/url]

Here's a food-related invention that is even weirder than the notorious Beanzawave: The Cocoon, a concept cooker that grows meat and fish from heated animal cells in a process that looks disturbingly similar to magic animal growing capsules.

Designed by Richard Hederstierna of the Lund Institute of Technology, Cocoon took first place today in the Electrolux Design Lab Competition. Hederstierna's device uses RFID signals to discern the type of fish or meat inserted into the cooker. The meat's muscle cells, nutrients, and oxygen are heated for a preset time, and voila, delicious meat is born, sans the whole killing animals part.
In addition to preventing animal slaughter, the cooker is designed to address food shortages around the world. It's a controversial idea, to say the least, but it could also be a quick and easy way to get nutrients from meat products to populations that often have unhealthy diets. Electrolux hasn't committed to researching whether the device is feasible, but Hederstierna will receive a $7,347 prize as well as a six month paid internship at an Electrolux global design center. What do you think--would you eat meat from the Cocoon?


I don't know.... I'm just not convinced....

Ah... the bits highlighted in red puzzle me... has the thing been invented or is it just on paper? Electrolux don't know if it's even feasible, according to the quote. And... it appears that meat/fish has to be put into the device in order for meat/fish to come out, so something has to be killed somewhere along the line... or, if not killed, at least damaged somewhat in order to get the 'primer' flesh...

Sounds downright unpleasant to me - though probably no more so than killing meat in the traditional way.

May be stating the obvious here, but something cannot come from nothing. These cells would need to get nutrition from somewhere to multiply so it can't just seen as growing meat from a vat. May prove a way to reduce the space and energy requirements to keep the meat industry going. Seeing as it is starting to get a little prohibitive from an energy and environmental perspective.

The food industry is already a little creepy to those of us who knows how it works. Morally speaking this is not as much of a change as some might think. Somehow I think I would continue to enjoy my steak even if this frankenfood became reality.

so all the farmers, fishermen etc who rely on the meat industry to survive... just get made obsolete by your little machine. well done for destroying the economy.

jklinders wrote:May be stating the obvious here, but something cannot come from nothing. These cells would need to get nutrition from somewhere to multiply so it can't just seen as growing meat from a vat.

Yeah. That would be breaking the laws of science.

Very much like free energy theories.

So, we put in a packet of cells, the cells are heated and multiply, thus creating a slab of meat filled with nutrients?

Even if this takes off I'll still prefer to get my venison from natural sources. Namely, the grocery store.