Middle NZ: Lab protein turns my stomach

I'm really not that keen on the idea of eating protein made in a lab.

However, according to a story I read yesterday that's what the future holds.

A new report says we humans, who have been eating meat forever, are on the "cusp of the fastest disruption to agriculture in 10,000 years".

The independent London-San Francisco based REthinX reckons the US cattle and farming industry, including dairy, will be all but bankrupt by protein technology within 10 years.

That's a scary thought. The main reason, they claim, is that the protein produced in labs will be five times cheaper than meat.

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That part I can understand. Feeding a family on a budget is not easy and who can blame shoppers for choosing the cheapest cut.

It will probably look and taste similar to meat and most likely some people won't even realise what they are buying.

It's a disturbing thought for me anyway to think that I won't be able to buy red meat, especially mince. Yep that's what I would miss the most.

The most versatile and economic meat around — beef mince - what you can't do with it is not worth doing.

Then what about the barbecue — that's a staple part of the Kiwi diet. Imagine barbecuing a steak made from something that has come from "precision fermentation which enables programming of micro-organisms to produce almost any complex organic molecule".

It can't possibly smell the same as a real steak cooking on the barbie. I really do not want to eat micro-organism.

I'm happy to have a meat-free night or two a week but what if that choice was taken away from us?

The other thing that really worries me about this move is not about me — it's about all the younger members of my extended family.

How many times have we been told that something is safe to eat or drink and then lo and behold the next thing you know it causes cancer.

I'm not saying this would but again I say food produced in a lab is just not right.
We are told time and time again by the experts to eat "whole foods". Eat a "limited amount of processed food".

Can't think of anything more processed than food produced in a lab.

I'm buying six freezers to stock up. Only problem is I might have to mess with Mr Neat's shed. Don't like my chances.

■FOOTNOTE: With only three and a half days left to vote it's so disappointing to see that in Napier just 25.85 per cent of eligible voters have chosen to have their say while Hastings is even worse on 22.17 per cent.

Why don't people care? Is it because they can't decide who to vote for or that they simply don't care?

It's such a shame because candidates do care. That's the reason they are putting their hands up to be elected. These are the people that will be making decisions that affect every one of us so find those forms buried in a drawer — it's not too late. Fill them in and take them into council offices or Flaxmere or Havelock North libraries.

FOOTNOTE 2: I have heard reports that their have been hedgehogs sighted in Central Hawke's Bay, however there is no photographic evidence to support this claim.