The Ouroboros Human Meat Growing Kit Is "Technically" Not Cannibalism
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 10:43 am
A group of American scientists and designers have developed a concept for a kit for growing self-made steaks using human cells and blood to question the ethics of the meat industry.
The Ouroboros steak can be grown at home using your own cells harvested from the inside of your cheek and fed serum obtained from expired donor blood.
The resulting bite-sized pieces of meat, currently on display as a prototype at the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition, are made without harming animals, a process that the creators say cannot be said for the increasingly popular method of producing meat from animal cells.
The Ouroboros steak is part of the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition
Although the lab-grown meat industry claims to offer a more sustainable and humane alternative to factory farming, the process still relies on fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a protein-rich supplement for the growth of animal cell cultures.
FBS, which costs between £300 and £700 per litre, is extracted from the blood of foetal calves after their pregnant mothers have been slaughtered for the meat or dairy industry. So lab-grown meat remains a crop by-product that pollutes the environment just like conventional meat itself.
“Fetal bovine serum is worth a lot of money and animal lives,” said scientist Andrew Pelling, who developed the Ouroboros steak with industrial designer Grace Knight and artist-researcher Orkan Telhan.
"While some lab-grown meat companies claim to have solved this problem, to our knowledge, no independent, peer-reviewed scientific studies have supported these claims," Pelling continued.
"As the lab-grown meat industry rapidly evolves, it is important to create paraguay number data new development methods that uncover some of the underlying limitations, cutting through all the hype."
The Ouroboros Steak, named after the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail, eliminates the need for the use of other animals by relying solely on human blood and cells.
The version on display at London's Design Museum was made using human cell cultures, available for research and development from the American Tissue Culture Collection (ATCC), and fed with human serum obtained from expired blood donors that would otherwise be thrown away or incinerated.
The self-cultivation kit will include mycelium scaffolds (center) and human serum (right).
The walnut-sized steaks are preserved in resin and arranged on a plate with a napkin and silverware, a mocking nod to American fast-food culture.
As part of the DIY kit, the team suggests that users collect cells from the inside of their cheek with a cotton swab and place them on pre-grown scaffolds of mushroom mycelium.
They are kept in a warm environment, such as a low-temperature oven, for about three months and fed human serum until the steak is fully grown.
The Ouroboros steak can be grown at home using your own cells harvested from the inside of your cheek and fed serum obtained from expired donor blood.
The resulting bite-sized pieces of meat, currently on display as a prototype at the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition, are made without harming animals, a process that the creators say cannot be said for the increasingly popular method of producing meat from animal cells.
The Ouroboros steak is part of the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition
Although the lab-grown meat industry claims to offer a more sustainable and humane alternative to factory farming, the process still relies on fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a protein-rich supplement for the growth of animal cell cultures.
FBS, which costs between £300 and £700 per litre, is extracted from the blood of foetal calves after their pregnant mothers have been slaughtered for the meat or dairy industry. So lab-grown meat remains a crop by-product that pollutes the environment just like conventional meat itself.
“Fetal bovine serum is worth a lot of money and animal lives,” said scientist Andrew Pelling, who developed the Ouroboros steak with industrial designer Grace Knight and artist-researcher Orkan Telhan.
"While some lab-grown meat companies claim to have solved this problem, to our knowledge, no independent, peer-reviewed scientific studies have supported these claims," Pelling continued.
"As the lab-grown meat industry rapidly evolves, it is important to create paraguay number data new development methods that uncover some of the underlying limitations, cutting through all the hype."
The Ouroboros Steak, named after the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail, eliminates the need for the use of other animals by relying solely on human blood and cells.
The version on display at London's Design Museum was made using human cell cultures, available for research and development from the American Tissue Culture Collection (ATCC), and fed with human serum obtained from expired blood donors that would otherwise be thrown away or incinerated.
The self-cultivation kit will include mycelium scaffolds (center) and human serum (right).
The walnut-sized steaks are preserved in resin and arranged on a plate with a napkin and silverware, a mocking nod to American fast-food culture.
As part of the DIY kit, the team suggests that users collect cells from the inside of their cheek with a cotton swab and place them on pre-grown scaffolds of mushroom mycelium.
They are kept in a warm environment, such as a low-temperature oven, for about three months and fed human serum until the steak is fully grown.