Sunday, May 13, 2012

 

Mmmm, Human-Based Gelatin

Photo of Jelly Babies by Father Jack at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jelly_babies.jpg
Remember the scene in the dystopian film, Soylent Green, where Det. Robert Thorn (played by Charlton Heston) dramatically reveals the origin of the food source for much of the world's population? He cries, "Soylent Green is people!" . Any way, I couldn't help but remember this when I read last July on ScienceDaily.com that: "Scientists are reporting development of a new approach for producing large quantities of human-derived gelatin that could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for gelatin-type desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products."

Last September, The Telegraph reported, in a piece featuring the same Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry article that Science Daily referenced: "Reports last week that researchers could be just six months away from producing the world’s first artificial meat, using thousands of stem cells bred in a laboratory, sent a wave of fascination around the world. Yet there is an even more ghoulish prospect ahead: the idea of eating artificial food made from humans" and "In fact, human-derived gelatin is already in use by the pharmaceutical industry in the manufacture of certain pills and vaccines."

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