So… from where would all the ingredients used in the lab to create the “food” come?
Allergies
coopdawg
#22
I dunno…whatever biomass that mushroom mycelium feeds on I suppose.
That guy has more money than sense.
VirginiaEdie
(Edith)
#23
Hummmm…(I know you won’t be able to answer this, but it’s part of my cranky musings on this topic) How much fossil fuel would be used turning those mushrooms into edible product?
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#24
I hold with a number of agronomists I’ve encountered in person and on the Web, that cropping is the root of all agricultural evil, but that the solution is not mycelium, but ruminant forage agriculture, which, if done properly, has the potential to rebuild our topsoil and sequester enormous amounts of carbon.
As for amino acids, as Ballerstedt and others have pointed out, we are limited in our ability to assimilate protein by the amount of the least-available essential amino acid in that protein. This is why beef is considered the highest-quality protein, because it contains all the essential amino acids in the correct proportions, so we can utilise all the protein. (Beef, in fact, is the “high-quality reference protein” referred to in nutrition panels.)
As for taste, I’d say that’s up for grabs.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#25
That’s what I’d worry about. We already know that the carbon footprint from manufacturing and transporting chemical fertilisers vastly outweighs any possible benefit from monocropping, so I’d expect that to apply here, too.
As Bob points out, responsible grazing of ruminants on grasslands is a net carbon sink, and it also eliminates the need for chemical fertilisers, herbicides, and pesticides. I’ve just been watching a series of lectures on AMP (adaptative multi-paddock) grazing, an alternative to standard grazing practices, that shows improvements in soil in as short a time as three years.
A number of farmers have been pushed into AMP grazing by drought or by financial problems, and now find it to be a much more economical way of doing business, which greatly helps them when it’s time to make the bank payment. They also find it simpler to manage, and that it uses less machinery, and hence less fuel. The challenge is to carefully assess the impact of the herd on the grazing spot, and to move the animals when they have grazed off just the right amount of the plants. Once they’ve seen the improvement in soil quality, farmers find that the effort is well worth their time and effort. And the meat produced is of such quality that they can charge a bit more for it, which also helps their bottom line.
“AMP grazing” is a new term for what Alan Savory called “holistic grazing.” Holistic grazing, however, has been subjected to such a backlash, for various reasons, that many people will simply not consider it. But when the consultant calls it AMP grazing, instead, they will at least consider changing their methods.
lfod14
#26
There is, but it’s more indirect. Inflammation can make allergies worse, and a bad diet can raise inflammation, when I eat foods that I know I have an immune response to, other things that are also triggered by inflammation can act up as well.