Who Needs Animals When You Can Grow Your Own Beef? The Cocoon Grower & Cooker

If you've always wanted to grow your own meat and fish, Electrolux is going to try to make that possible with the Cocoon electronic grower and cooker, which won first place in the Electrolux Design Lab '09 competition.  What?  You never even thought about growing your own meat and fish?

The charge for competitors in Design Lab '09 was to create a home or personal gadget that would be relevant in the years between now and 2100, 90 years from now. All eight designs that were selected as finalists by the judges, which I covered last month (8 Awesome Futuristic Gadgets For Y2100 Are Design Lab '09 Finalists!), were truly ingenious, although a few were clearly 23rd Century.  My own favorite for the next 90 years was the Water Catcher that instantly purifies rainwater and flies over to your glass to pour it into your drinking glass.

 In what was described by one judge as a controversial choice, perhaps the appeal of Cocoon was its simple presentation and its scientific and technological feasibility in comparison to the other finalists.  Swedish designer Rickard Hederstierna believes the Cocoon could compensate for food shortages, certainly food shortages of the meat and fish variety.  And since the meat industry is arguably the largest contributor to global warming and its practices considered less than humane, appealing to meat eaters through the Cocoon strategy might just work to lessen demand somewhat.

"This will create 100 per cent pure meat without the need for animals to be killed and with no risk of contamination," said Hederstierna. "It will change everything."

The thought of eating genetically grown veggies is one thing, but meat and fish grown from pre-mixed muscle cells and nutrients...?  I just can't bring myself to say hmm...yummy. 

What do you think?

via Daily Mail