Good Morning Lowcountry

Growing meat

GMLc last mentioned Medical University of South Carolina researcher Vladimir Mironov in 2005.

We issued a Rudeness Warning then, and we'll repeat the warning:

If you have a high gag reflex, better not read further.

In the fall of 2005, with a grant from NASA, Mironov was working on meat-growing.

Larry Crowe/AP

This old-fashioned meat loaf is made with real beef. Scientists are working on growing meat patties from tissue samples in a large bioreactor.

He took stem cells from the biopsy of a live animal, or flesh from a slaughtered animal, and put them into a three-dimensional growth medium to produce ... well, hamburger.

Mironov, an associate professor of cell biology and anatomy at the medical university, proposed a countertop, bread maker-like appliance that will make meat overnight.

"Wash all this stuff, place this in microwave and after five minutes you have hamburger," Mironov told CBS at the time.

The problem was, The P&C later reported, the yuk factor was apparently so strong that he couldn't market the meat. Nobody wanted to eat his in-vitro burgers.

"You show this technology and say, 'Do you want to try the meat?' and they all say, 'No,' " Mironov told The P&C. "... It's not Frankenstein meat. It's like hydroponic tomatoes."

Hope is on the horizon, maybe, for Mironov.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has offered $1 million to the first scientist to produce marketable, lab-grown meat by 2012.

Its interest, PETA said in a Monday press release, is in saving animals from slaughter and lowering greenhouse gas emissions that are generated by raising animals for food.

An economic analysis presented at the world's first in-vitro meat symposium (yes, believe it or not) earlier this month in Norway found that meat grown in giant bioreactors would cost between $5,200 and $5,500 a ton. That is competitive with prices of European beef, the analysis found.

PETA went on to say that in order to win its prize, a lab must produce a quantity of a tasty in-vitro chicken product sufficient to market in at least 10 U.S. states at a price that compares with the price of supermarket chicken in 2012.

Marketability ... hmm. Mironov has already been there.

Lowcountry speak

A reader from Moncks Corner (whose initials are Russell Tyler) wrote to say that he's rightly appalled that GMLc, and Piccolo Spoleto, insist on spelling "come 'yuh" and "been 'yuh" as "come 'yah" and bin 'yah."

"What on earth has happened? In Monday GMLc, I perceive a discussion of 'Bin Yah' and 'Come Yah.' This is inherently incorrect. The native Gullah uses 'yuh' for here, not yah ... I take as my indisputable text the Gullah Glossary from 'The Black Border' by Ambrose Gonzalez ... Go thou and sin no more!"

And while we're at it, he added, the Combahee River in the ACE Basin is pronounced Cumbee. (GMLc also adds that the Cooper River is pronounced like looker, not roofer ... or if you're a bin 'yuh, Cuh-puh.)

GMLc stands corrected and agrees.

Full disclosure: This letter began "Cuz, Cuz, Cuz," because the reader and letter writer is, in fact, a wickedly funny Cousin GMLc.

GMLc
Call 937-5564. Write gmlc@postandcourier.com. Find the blog at gmlc.typepad.com.