soylent green ,right around the corner !

[beowulf]

had a bit of trouble believing what I was reading ! 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.

[mongrel]

I've been told to eat fecal matter, in a manner of speaking. Those were fighting words. I don't see it happening.

I fail to see how methane emissions from animals will be reduced by switching to fecal by-products instead of steak, unless once the need for cattle and other animals slaughtered (or hunted) for their meat is done away with, the idea is to sterilize the remaining examples to prevent reproduction and the consequent perpetuation and increase of the population. Otherwise, if anything, the methane problem will be increased.

Humans messing with good plain ol' Nature again. How often does this sort of thing end well, over the long haul?

[Dogshirt]

environmental responsibility be damned! I ain't eatin' it and they can't make me!

[Hawken50]

  Ive heard somethin called **** on a shingle,but this is ridicules.

[beowulf]

it`s a twisted world we live in ! I was watching a late night talk show back in the late ninties , they had this whack job on who was supposed to be a professor , specializing in environmental issues . this nutcase made the remark that there is no reason for hunger in the world , after all we put thousands of  tons of protein in the ground every day ! sick bugger was talking human bodies ! we throw enough food away every week where I work to feed several hundred people , multiply that by how many supermarkets there are , and it boggles the mind ! the root cause of starvation and suffering is and always will be greed !

[crazell]

I'm always accused of talking ****, and being full of it. But there is no way in the world i'm gonna eat it!!!!!!

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

 I tell you what, if this goes huge I'm buying stock in breath mints . I can see it now " Man your breath smells like crap", " No man it's a Jap steak".  Freaking nuts.

[chem_guy]

I have always been of the opinion that while technology and science can do grand things, just because we can do such a thing does not mean we should do such a thing.

[Rocky]

this whole thing seems like a crappy idea.

[beowulf]

bet the toothpaste companies are all for it ! 

[windwalker_au]

bet the toothpaste companies are all for it ! 

Bernie