- Pacific
Mankind's food chain may become a loop
Mankind has come up with all sorts of ideas
for new meat sources from cloned animals to chowing down on insects,
but this idea may be the most outlandish yet.
The Tokyo Sewage service in Japan serves over 13 million people over approximately a 2,200
square kilometer area. It approached Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the
Okayama Laboratory, with an unusual problem -- it had too much "sewer mud" (also
known as human excrement).
It turns out human excrement is a breeding ground for scores of bacteria. So Mr.
Ikeda cooked up an unusual solution -- make food [video]
out of the feces.
The first step is to cook the bacteria, killing them, and to extract their proteins via
separation techniques according
to Yahoo News. Soy protein is added to enhance
the flavor. The meat mixture travels to a "reaction enhancer" (likely a
chemical reactor of some sort) where it turns into a textured "meat" and is then
extrude through an "exploder".
The delicious "steak" is even finished with red food color to give it a
comforting hue. Mr. Ikeda claims that in initial testing people found the feces
steak to taste somewhat like beef.
Mr. Ikeda is afraid the main obstacle to deploying excrement meat to the masses is the
"psychological barrier." He states, "I admit that few people would be
keen to eat it knowing its made of human excrement."
Indeed, the concept of "fake" meat alone is hard for some to swallow. Taco
Bell was recently sued when diners discovered that its beef mixed "fake meat"
filers with real meat.
How much would the "meat" cost?
Mr. Ikeda comments, "As far as the cost is concerned, because at the moment it
includes the cost of research our artificial meat is 10 to 20 times more expensive than
normal meat. But once the research is complete and it's put on the market, we'll
probably be able to price
it at roughly the same level as normal meat."
The new "meat" is also healthier than traditional meat as it’s an ideal mix
of 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids and 9% minerals. The small fat
content, in particular makes the feces steaks healthier than their animal counterpart.
The new meat would also cut down on the greenhouse gas
emissions, which traditional livestock produce. In that regard it could
even earn
"carbon credits" helping its price to be cheaper than animal-derived
meat.
The idea
may sound crazy, but consider that Japan is no stranger to fine meat products. Its
Kobe region beef is renowned by connoisseurs worldwide for it's delicious flavor.
And as the band Pink Floyd famously sang, "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have
any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!" (
Somehow this feels like a Vonnegut plotline: population boom equals food shortage. Solution? Synthesize food from human waste matter. Absurd yes, but Japanese scientists have actually discovered a way to create edible steaks from human feces.
Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, has developed steaks based on proteins from human excrement. Tokyo Sewage approached the scientist because of an overabundance of sewage mud. They asked him to explore the possible uses of the sewage and Ikeda found that the mud contained a great deal of protein because of all the bacteria.
The researchers then extracted those proteins, combined them with a reaction enhancer and put it in an exploder which created the artificial steak. The “meat” is 63% proteins, 25% carbohydrates, 3% lipids and 9% minerals. The researchers color the poop meat red with food coloring and enhance the flavor with soy protein. Initial tests have people saying it even tastes like beef.
Inhabitat notes that “the meatpacking industry causes 18 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to the release of methane from animals.” Livestock also consume huge amounts of resources and space in efforts to feed ourselves as well as the controversy over cruelty to animals. Ikeda’s recycled poop burger would reduce waste and emissions, not to mention obliterating Dante’s circle for gluttons.
The scientists hope to price it the same as actual meat, but at the moment the excrement steaks are ten to twenty times the price they should be thanks to the cost of research. Professor Ikeda understands the psychological barriers that need to be surmounted knowing that your food is made from human feces. They hope that once the research is complete, people will be able to overlook that ugly detail in favor of perks like environmental responsibility, cost and the fact that the meat will have fewer calories.
Waste not; want not. (yahoo, 6.16.2011) http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110615/tc_digitaltrends/japanesescientistscreatesmeatoutoffeces
"To Achieve One World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification." (Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization)
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." (Ian Williams Goddard)
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson