From an economic and environmental perspective, meat has some problems. Animals consume a great deal of resources in their growth and they release a large amount of methane, a greenhouse gas. There’s also the whole ethical debate: is killing a cute snuggly animal permissible if it tastes really good? Researchers in the Netherlands may be able to sidestep ethics and solve some of the environmental issues with their latest creation – pork cells cultured in a petri dish. This artificial meat is grown from myoblasts (special muscle cells which repair damage) incubated in a solution derived from the blood products of animal fetuses. Sounds gruesome, but scientists hope to eventually switch to a synthetic medium for culturing the cells. Mark Post, the head investigator for the project at Eindhoven University of Technology, believes that the artificial pork could be ready for use in sausage in as little as five years. I find that to be a remarkable accomplishment, Jon Stewart much less so. You can find his reaction in the video from the Daily Show after the break.

We’ve had artificial meat in other forms for almost a decade. Scientists at Touro College in New York worked with NASA to develop an artificial fish fillet for astronauts on long space voyages. In that experiment, fish muscles were coaxed to grow in a solution after being sliced off of goldfish. In contrast, the new Dutch work is so promising because the pork grown does not require any animal to be injured during production. If ultimately successful, the Eindhoven technique may lead to a whole range of artificially grown animal products including seafood, chicken, and beef.

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