test tube burger
$330,000 Hamburger
People taste a $330,000 test-tube hamburger.
Vocabulary
| debut | average | test tube |
| fry | absence | petri dish |
| flavor | frying pan | conventional |
| organic | nutrient | solution (2) |
| strand | appetite | carnivorous |
| current | maximum | sufficient |
| lab | reduce | animal waste |
| patty | expect | animal rights group |
| tweak | horrible | hard swallow |
Video
Transcript
This average looking hamburger is anything but average.
Taster One: “It’s close to meat.”
Dutch researchers debuted the world’s first test tube burger.
Out of the petri dish, into the frying pan and served up in a public taste test.
Volunteers said the beef lacked flavor.
Josh Schonwald, Journalist: “The absence is, I feel like it’s the fat. But the bite feels like a conventional hamburger.”
Far from it. The burger was actually grown in a lab.
Researchers put stem cells from two organic cows in a nutrient solution with grew them into small strands of muscle.
Developers hoped cultured meat can help feed the world’s growing carnivorous appetite.
Mark Post, Physiology Professor, Maastricht University: “Most people just don’t realize that the current meat production is at a maximum. And it’s not going to supply sufficient meat for growing demand for the coming 40 years.”
Lab grown meat might also help fight climate change by reducing animal waste.
Some animal rights groups favor the technology.
But a test-tube burger could be hard for the public to swallow.
Person One: “I think it’s great because I don’t think people be eating meat.
Person Two: “I would eat meat that comes from anything, because as long as it’s on a plate, I wouldn’t know where it comes from anyway.”
Person Three: “It’s horrible, it’s unnatural.”
While scientists say they can tweak the taste, don’t expect to see these high-tech hamburgers on a value menu anytime soon.
The project cost $330,000, and took two years to make — two patties.
Questions
1. This is a normal hamburger. True or false?
2. Did the tasters love the burger? Did they think it was absolutely delicious? How did the tasters describe the burgers?
3. Could cultured meat solve world problems?
4. Everyone on the street agreed with lab developed meat. Yes or no? What do people on the street say?
5. Were the artificial hamburgers were easy to make?
A. What do you think about the lab-burgers?
B. Would you eat or buy them?
A. What do you think about what the experiment?
B. What are the advantages of lab grown or industrially produced meat?
C. What are the disadvantage?
D. Would you eat or buy lab-grown meat? Why or why not?
