Excrement Steak

[Intrepidation]

Yes' date=' you read that right. Steaks from your poop. The Japanese have figured out how to do it. Apparently, it even tastes like beef.

[url']http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110615/tc_digitaltrends/japanesescientistscreatesmeatoutoffeces?wtf[/url]

But really, who needs to read the news story above when you can just watch a youtube video about it?

[67impss]

Can't even watch

[Robert Hall]

Mmmmm...poo burgers. We can literally make our own food.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Astronauts already drink their own reclaimed bodily fluids. This wouldn't be too much of a leap for them. Would be very useful for deep space missions.

I don't think I'd eat it though.

[Camino LS6]

Words fail...

[bobo]

This is the type of story you'd expect on The Onion. No doubt doing this is theoretically possible. The story states that they extract the protein. I assume that heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and other impurities are therefore not an issue. Yum.

[ocnblu]

A lot of shit comes out of Japan, I'll tell you what.

[§carlet §wordfish]

With the about of crap our politicians are full of, we could end world hunger.

[Intrepidation]

Welcome to Turd Burger Home of the Turd Burger can I turd out your Order?

ONLY IN JAPAN

[Justin Bimmer]

It gives a whole new meaning to "I'm going to make a steak"

[SAmadei]

I don't know where this source is, but I think this is mostly BS.

To the best of my knowledge, we are not just spewing out spare proteins. I suppose someone who eats lots of hard to digest plant matter may, as we have a relatively short digestive tract due to being meat eaters. In fact, proteins in one's urine are a sign of kidney failure. If the body is hoarding proteins, I'm sure it is not only doing it in one type of waste.

That said, I note in the video that they mention sewage mud... which makes me think that the excrement is being eat to some sort of microbe... perhaps this microbe is the source of edible proteins.

I think this is somebodies idea of a April fools video.

In other news, synthetic meats are coming... grown in pans or forms with nothing but nutrients washed over them. The problem has been that the resultant meat is too uniform... it fails the "real test" in the same way the "uncanny valley" does. I look forward to this technology because I don't like fatty, grisly meat... and I like the idea of slaughter-free meat.

[Intrepidation]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110615/tc_digitaltrends/japanesescientistscreatesmeatoutoffeces?wtf

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.

[Robert Hall]

Hmmmmm...how about Soylent Green?

[SAmadei]

http://news.yahoo.co...toutoffeces?wtf

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.

Well, I don't believe just anything I read. Cold Fusion has lots written about it for decades now.

Anyway, the article doesn't specify where exactly the bacteria are coming from? Us? I realize we have 'friendly bacteria' internally, but I doubt we are losing them in any massive amounts. I'm still thinking the excrement is gathering them after being excreted. Fermented.

Maybe this is why we're getting so many E. Coli contamination problems... too many food fields downstream of top secret Excrement Reclaimation plants.

Of course, if they are harvesting theses proteins from bacteria, why not step back a step and harvest them from something a little less nasty... like maggots. Then you can feed the maggots excrement to their heart's content, and people can understand better that they are not technically making steak from excrement.

Will people eat maggot burgers? I don't know. We eat mechanically recovered meat (Well, I don't anymore)... its about as nasty a process as you can get. Call maggot meat "Diptera Beef".

[67impss]

Hmmmmm...how about Soylent Green?

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!

[SAmadei]

How many people here have even watched Soylent Green?

[§carlet §wordfish]

I have.

[ocnblu]

You cannot tell me this is not a joke. WHY DOES IT SAY "SHIT BURGER" ON THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR IN THE VIDEO WHEN HE OPENS IT???

[Camino LS6]

How many people here have even watched Soylent Green?

I remember when it first hit TV in the seventies.

Got my attention.

[67impss]

Saw it first run at the Dixie Drive-in