Tree That Give Meat Instead Of Fruit!
Friday May 16, 2003
By MICHAEL CHIRON
MANCHESTER, England -- Here's some good news that vegetarians can
really sink their teeth into: Researchers have developed genetically
engineered fruit trees that bear real meat!
Fruit from the new Meat Trees, developed by British scientists using
gene-splicing technology, closely resembles ordinary grapefruit. But
when you peel the large fruit open, inside is fresh beef.
"Our trees may sound like something out of a science fiction movie,
but it's really a simple, down-to-earth idea whose time has come,"
declares Dr. Vincent Tartley, director of agricultural bioengineering
research for the UltraModAgri Group, which created the amazing trees.
"Vegetarians have been complaining for years that despite their moral
convictions against consuming meat, they still crave the flavor of a
good steak once in a while. Now they can have their cake and eat it
too."
Although it's taken 12 years to develop the trees, the concept is
simple.
"We take the genes from cattle that produce key proteins and splice
them into the reproductive cells of grapefruit trees," he says. "When
the seeds mature into trees, instead of producing ordinary citrus
fruit, the pulp contains meat. You get the flavor, texture -- even the
smell."
Those who've sampled the meat agree it tastes like the real thing.
"I was a bit skeptical at first when I sank my teeth into a hamburger
after they told me it grew on a tree," says Londoner Mark Basker, 41,
who participated in a consumer taste-test. "But it was juicy and
delicious -- nothing leafy about it at all."
Meat grown on trees needs only sun, water and fertilizer and thus is
more cost-effective than raising livestock, Dr. Tartley also points
out.
Meat Tree products could be on the market in Great Britain by year's
end and, pending USDA approval, on dinner plates in the U.S. by 2005.
Some fanatical vegetarians insist they could never eat meat -- even if
it grew on a tree and no animals had to be killed. Others love the
idea.
"My mouth is watering already," says a committed vegetarian of 20
years.
But religious leaders are uneasy about "trans-species genetic
engineering." "Mixing animal and vegetable DNA to create a new species
is playing God," argues Rev. Lawrence Bedlow, Britain's leading expert
in medical ethics.
