Carnivores and herbivores have been playing cat and mouse for millions of years, and while I'm sure it was heated in the Jurassic era, it feels like tensions have reached an all-time high in the 21st century.
It's not because us meat eaters are trying to catch and kill vegetarians and vegans, but rather because it has become such a divided topic, and people are now labeling a 3D-printed steak as 'gross' as scientists displayed their innovation to the masses.
Before we get into it, let's quickly talk about meat consumption in the US.
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The average American consumes 124kgs each year, more than any other country on the planet, according to TheWorldCounts.
TheWorldCounts was created to raise awareness of important global challenges such as the consumer economy, the world population, and the environment. It claims that as many as 72,000,000,000 animals are slaughtered for consumption around the globe every year.
Now, we all love our meat, but 72 billion animals dying each year is a bit excessive... although I'm sure that won't change your mind.
But the Israeli masterminds behind the vegan company Redefine Meats are doing their bit to tackle the global meat consumption by designing and creating its own 3D-printed beef.
Speaking about the company on Reddit, one user shared: "Context: Redefine Meat is an Israel based company that make plant based meats using 3D printing. This process allows them to recreate complex fibrous aspects of meat, to simulate muscle tissue. In other words, they can make a steak FEEL real.
"Currently, their biggest advocate in the UK is celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, who has signed a deal with the company to provide steaks, burgers, meatballs and other products in his restaurants.
"I took 3 of my meat eating friends last week. We all ordered plant based steaks and we were all completely blown away. I highly, highly recommend getting down there and experiencing this thing for yourself."
Adding: "NOTE: The steak pictured was my friend's. This one was cooked in garlic butter, which isn't vegan. But you can have all the options veganised."
Another video uploaded to Twitter of a 3D-printed steak garnered a mixed reaction. One user wrote: "Gross."
"Looks fun to play with BUT I don't wanna eat it," typed another.
A third added: "If it tastes like it's supposed to, I'd try it. At the end of the day it's all muscle, fat, and blood. All they did was put it back together."
Speaking about the product to Reuters, one of Redefine Meat's food engineer's Alexey Tomsov said: "We analyse the different components that make those beautiful cuts and try to figure out which are the key components that we need to mimic in order to achieve those beautiful cuts of meat.
“We identified three main components: the muscle, the blood and the fat. These are the components that we need to mimic on order to reach the perfect, beautiful steak."
Topics: Environment, Health, Science, Technology
Joe Yates