Chapter 145: Cultured Meat (11)

Cultured meat is an already-established technology that is necessary to deal with the upcoming food crisis, prevent environmental destruction, and solve the moral problem of eating meat. I believe everyone is already familiar with its usefulness, Young-Joon said. I think the reason why this legislative hearing is being held on the bill to restrict cultured meat is because people are not yet convinced of the safety of cultured meat, as stated by the affirmative party beforehand.

Young-Joon turned on the Foodscan machine.

For those who were not convinced by my statement earlier, I will prove it to you now.

He pulled out a few large plastic bags from the ice box next to him. Each bag had a large piece of tape on it, and it had beef inside.

I requested this from the administrators. The name of the company that processed each piece of meat is probably written underneath that tape. It could be cultured meat, it could be from Tekeyson Foods, or it could be from Red Meat.

Young-Joon lined up the ten plastic bags on the table.

I dont know the order either. We will randomly pick one, analyze it, see the results together, then take the tape off. Which one should we pick? Number one is the far left, Young-Joon asked the audience.

This was not how an introductory statement was usually done. The usual way was to just read through the statement. Young-Joon wasnt violating the rules, but the audience was taken aback by his unusual actions.

However, one brave person from the audience shouted, Number three!

Alright, I will analyze number three. Foodscan can analyze ten species at a time, so lets do one more. Which one should we do?

Number five! someone shouted again.

Sure.

Young-Joon picked up the two plastic bags and took out one hundred grams of beef from each. He opened the first and second sample lanes, put in the beef, and pressed a button to start the analysis.

Beep! Whirr!

With his arms crossed, Young-Joon silently waited as the machine started with a short beep. This was too relaxed to be an opening statement, where every second counted.

We dont need to be constantly talking for fifteen minutes.

Rosaline said.

A picture was worth a thousand words; showing people once was enough.

Click!

The lids of the first and second sample lanes opened. It meant that the analysis was complete. Young-Joon pressed a button, and the results were presented on the screen in the front of the hall.

[Sample 1: 324.1 kcal. 25 g of fat (12 g saturated fat, 1 g polyunsaturated, 12 g monounsaturated), 85 mg cholesterol, 57 mg sodium, 331 mg potassium, 0 g carbohydrate (0 g fiber, 0 g sugars), 24 g protein, 0IU vitamin A, 9 mg vitamin C, 3.1 mg iron, 2.5 g cobalamin, 22 mg magnesium]

These are the values from the first sample, Young-Joon said. Shall we look at the second sample?

Young-Joon went on to the next slide.

[Sample 2: 284.7 kcal, 19 g fat]

There is a big calorie difference, and the fat and protein content is very different. The second sample has a much higher vitamin and protein content as well. What do you think they are? Young-Joon asked.

The second is cultured meat! The first is Red Meat! someone shouted from the audience.

The second sample is cultured meat Really? Young-Joon said, then turned to face the panelists. What do you think?

The affirmative party was flustered, and so was Mckinney and Diego from the negative party.

Um I also think that the second sample is cultured meat, Mckinney said cautiously.

The first sample is cultured meat, said the man with a beard who was sitting beside Steven.

It was Clarence Bishop; he was one of the conservative polemicists who was strongly against cultured meat.

I studied food nutrition, and it seems to me that the fat content of the first sample is higher than a beef tenderloin processed the normal way, Clarence said. Doctor Ryu, I did a lot of research on cultured meat myself, and free fatty acids can occur in the process of stretching the muscle fibers. When you use the mechanism of cancer cells and proliferate it in a short amount of time, the fatty acids will stay in the muscle fibers and increase the saturated fat content. It becomes a product detrimental to your health.

Is that so? Young-Joon asked.

Yes. The first sample is cultured meat.

Young-Joon chuckled, and so did Diego.

Then, lets reveal it.

Young-Joon took off the tape, and the company name was revealed.

[Red Meat], [Red Meat]

...

The affirmative party was a little flustered.

Wait, how could you do this? Putting Red Meat in both of them and Clarence argued.

I didnt tell you before, but I asked for three products from each company. I did not know that both of them were Red Meat products either. We picked them at random as everyone saw, didnt we? Young-Joon said.

...

What do you think happened? How is it that the same species of cattle, raised in the same traditional way and slaughtered and processed in the same way, have such different components in their tenderloins?

Young-Joon took off the tape on all of the plastic bags. He put each sample into the Foodscan and ran it.

The reason they differ is because they come from a live animal, Young-Joon said. Its the same way that we all look different from each other, have different personalities, different heights, different weights, and different tendencies. Livestock animals like cattle also have different tendencies, so naturally, the meat we get from them is going to be different.

Young-Joon picked up a product from Red Meat.

The component composition of meat is not strictly analyzed; they are just being distributed, right? We do not scientifically know what we are eating. The components in a beef tenderloin known on the market are average values. And all biology has great deviations to the left and right of the average, Young-Joon said. Tenderloin is generally thought to be low in fat and cholesterol, but what about sample one? The values were so shaky that even a food nutrition expert was confused, right?

Thats because I thought there was cultured meat among them, so Clarence mumbled.

Young-Joon nodded.

Now that there is cultured meat, people are at least suspicious. Before that, everyone would have eaten it without thinking, even people with high cholesterol.

...

It is just that the human body itself is robust enough to buffer a lot of variables. But eating food that you dont know the composition of is not a desirable situation both nutritionally and medically. Ending up with acute kidney failure or intestinal ulcers is common from eating bad things and not being able to digest them, Young-Joon said. But cultured meat is different. You can trust the nutritional facts. Cultured meat is grown fiber by fiber in a strictly controlled manner, so it does not have a big deviation, like traditional meat.

Click!

The analytical data for the ten different meats showed up on the screen. There were three from Red Meat, three from Tekeyson Foods, and four pieces of cultured meat.

Lets compare the data.

First, Young-Joon opened the data from Red Meat and Tekeyson Foods. It was a complete mess. The worst one showed that a piece of Red Meats beef had a three times higher sodium content than the meat from Tekeyson Foods.

Young-Joon pressed a few buttons and statistically analyzed the data. He organized Red Meat, Tekeyson Foods, and cultured meat into three separate places. He graphed the results with error bars. Regardless of what company it was, the values of traditional meat varied tremendously with error bars ranging from twenty percent to three hundred percent.

In science, these values are usually seen as meaningless. We conclude that another factor is required to control the data, Young-Joon said. That is how new technologies are invented: by discovering and applying new factors.

Young-Joon went on to the next slide.

The result of that is cultured meat.

The error margin was two percent, the calories for all four samples were 320.5, and three samples had a fat content of fifteen grams with one having 14.9; the values were basically identical.

The composition of cultured meat is more stable and credible than traditional meat.

Young-Joon pressed a few buttons for analysis again.

This time, lets take a look at the values of residual hormones, antibiotics, bacteria, and viruses in the meat.

This was even worse. All the values were much higher in the traditional meat. This made sense in a way as these animals had accumulated them from eating feed that was enriched with antibiotics and hormones. No matter how hygienic the slaughter conditions were maintained, blood splattered everywhere, and saws were used to cut through meat and bones. As they hosed it down with water afterwards, there was naturally a higher chance that microorganisms would reproduce in these places. The microorganisms that were left in the body of the livestock in the first place would have developed resistance to antibiotics after a long battle and remained in the processed products.

In terms of food safety regulations, it doesnt matter if it is eaten after processing, Young-Joon said. But there is no reason to intentionally eat something that is full of antibiotics, hormones, and microorganisms when there are alternatives.

Young-Joon went on to the next slide. There was almost zero residual amount in cultured meat. It wasnt created in a hygienic slaughter environment; it was created in a sterile space. Like how workers who assembled ultra-microscopic semiconductors wore dust suits, cultured meat was made on a biosafety workbench with workers wearing sterile suits, completely isolated from outside contaminants. The product, which is vacuum-sealed there, contains no bacteria or viruses.

Even the trace amounts that you see now must have come from my hands during the transfer from the bag to the machine, Young-Joon said. There are no residual amounts of hormones and antibiotics. There are no antibiotics because we dont use any, and the hormone disappears when we remove and wash away the culture media. Of course, as I said earlier, it is okay to consume because it is from a plant and does not affect the human body.

Young-Joon went on.

Everyone. Cultured meat is safe. You can rest assured. That is it for my statement.

You have forty seconds left, said the speaker.

Its fine. Its my turn to be cross-questioned, right?

It was the same thing as how Young-Joon attacked Steven when he gave his statement first. This time, Steven had to question Young-Joon and find holes in his statement.

Thats right. The first member of the affirmative party, please begin the cross-questioning, said the speaker.

Steven pursed his lips and stood up. He was speechless for a long time as he stared at Young-Joon.

...

Ask me anything, Young-Joon said.

... question.

Pardon?

...

With a defeated face, Steven said, There is nothing to cross-question

* * *

The hearing was basically over after Young-Joons statement. The rest of the discussion was one-sided and meaningless.

After everything ended, Tanya Manker and Mckinney called Young-Joon, who left the hall.

I was so surprised, Mr. Ryu, Mckinney said.

I apologize for not giving you a heads-up about how I was going to present it in advance. I was busy advising the Department of Agriculture on the red mold thing.

Thats alright. We won easily, thanks to you.

... Doctor Ryu, Tanya interrupted. Is there any chance you could tell me how you predicted that with my program?

I will tell you if I get a chance to, Young-Joon said, smiling.

Vrrr

A few huge dump trucks that were heavily loaded were driving by on the other side of the road.

Thats probably the red mold treatment. I heard they are concentrating the supply on infected areas right now, Mckinney said.

It must be hectic down at the USDA.

They are probably busy, but also probably happy, Tanya said. They averted an immediate crisis thanks to Mr. Ryu.

And the global crisis ten years later, Mckinney added.