CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat

Posted by rguiscard 12/12/2025

CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat(www.isaaa.org)

314 points | 236 commentspage 4

djaouen 12/12/2025|

Soon, humanity will have zero excuse to kill any animal. Neat!

Bender 12/12/2025||

Fungus is very much alive and to meet peoples caloric requirements means massacring hundreds of trillions of them. We just can't easily hear them scream. They communicate with one another over massive fungal networks in forests and jungles. Fungus are fascinating. They can recognize patterns and make decisions. Slime mold is even more interesting in that it can remember complex patterns, solve mapping challenges and make decisions without a nervous system suggesting our understanding of the term life is likely very incomplete. Slime mold can remember feeding times and locations.

Rooster61 12/12/2025||

We're only massacring the fruiting bodies. The mycelium is just fine and lives on to create even more fruiting bodies. It's like picking apples from an apple tree. The tree itself isn't harmed in the slightest. The only difference is that many fruits are designed to be eaten so that the seeds can pass an germinate, whereas mushrooms achieve this through spore release.

NoGravitas 12/12/2025|||

For some of these fungal meat-substitute products, I think you do eat the mycelia (for bystanders, the fruiting body we eat is mushrooms). But I don't think the fungus is bothered about it the same way the chicken is.

Bender 12/12/2025|||

That's interesting. Is there a video that shows this process up close at the microscopic level? How long does this process take?

myvoiceismypass 12/12/2025||

I feel like this might have been shown in the 2019 documentary 'Fantastic Fungi' (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8258074/) - really interesting and fun movie.

Y_Y 12/12/2025||

Who needs an excuse? You might think it's immoral, but that's a minority position and developing new fungi is going to be much easier than convincing billions of people to adopt your values.

eudamoniac 12/12/2025||

I feel that eating meat is unethical yet I make no attempt to reduce my consumption; I just acknowledge I am behaving unethically in this regard. Do you think that is such a minority position?

Y_Y 12/12/2025||

It's just you and me I'm afraid.

b800h 12/12/2025||

You could make a substitute that mimicked meat entirely. I'd still take the thing that grew in a cow. In "Culture" terms, I'm with the Affront. :-)

lillecarl 12/12/2025||

Do you prefer huge wasteful trucks and wide roads too?

NoGravitas 12/12/2025||

I think that is implied.

bawana 12/12/2025||

I cant wait to see the unintended consequences. Imagine eating a food which then digests you from the inside out. Wait, wasnt there a video game like this?..,,,half-life

dan_hawkins 12/12/2025|

Like pineapple?

op00to 12/12/2025|||

I used to wonder how the US population could be so stupid to elect someone counter to their best interests, then threads like these remind me that people are really, really bad at logic and such.

Nevermark 12/12/2025|||

Don't eat a large bowl of fresh cranberries for breakfast.

globular-toast 12/12/2025|

It's so odd to me as a veggie that people want something that "tastes like meat". If you've been immersed in decent veggie food for a while this isn't something you crave. Why would I want to eat a bit of dead animal? It's something I might do in a survival situation in a barren place, like Han Solo or something, but not if there are fresh veggies to hand.

If you want to do this for ethical reasons, which you should, then just eat vegetables. They taste way better. You just have to recalibrate your senses to deal with the higher levels of flavour.

But if people really want "chicken nuggets" for some reason then there's no reason it should have to involve animals at all, so this is a good thing, I guess.

wongarsu 12/12/2025||

Not just vegetables, also hash browns, fried potatoes, french fries, pancakes, spaghetti, etc.

There are plenty of vegetarian meals (or vegan ones, though that's harder). It's just that we have relegated most of them to side dishes, entres or breakfast because meat is too popular as a main dish. But this is a very recent phenomenon

But you can't make any money selling hash browns as veggie food, it's much more profitable to sell fake meat

_dark_matter_ 12/12/2025|||

I'm sorry, I've been vegetarian (mostly vegan, no eggs or milk) for over 10 years, and I crave meat. A juicy burger. Spicy chicken wings. Actually those are mainly it.

I am so thankful of advances that let me eat something my brain enjoys. I get the best of both worlds - no animal harmed in the process.

Why do vegs have to neg on other vegs for what they eat? I hate that. To each their own. I encourage everyone to be vegetarian to support animal rights, but I also would never tell them that their cravings aren't real or how to go about doing it.

globular-toast 12/12/2025||

> Why do vegs have to neg on other vegs for what they eat?

It's not a "neg", it's my opinion. I don't think you need to crave meat, you are just lacking the proper cuisine that would satisfy you completely. Try Gobi 65 and you'll never crave "spicy chicken wings" again. I feel like people go veggie by just removing meat from a cuisine that is centred around it. Imagine British food without meat: nothing and mash, nothing and chips, roast nothing... mmm... delicious. You need to completely change. There's nothing "missing" from a vegetarian Indian meal.

engcoach 12/12/2025|||

What about people who have eaten extensive quantities (and variations) of vegetarian Indian food but still crave meat? It's not a matter of exposure, it's also a matter of taste.

botanical76 12/12/2025|||

I don't agree with your conclusion, but just wanted to say the segment on "roast nothing" was hilarious and absolutely true. Quite right that many cuisines depend on meat to be worth eating. I'm just happy that the food I eat no longer consumes animal lives; the mechanism to do that is a triviality compared.

walterlw 12/12/2025|||

I believe this is about the perceived switching cost for the masses who, in the US and Europe for example, are predominantly not vegetarian.

NoGravitas 12/12/2025||

I want umami and a meatlike texture sometimes. Beans and mushrooms are usually fine for this, and seitan is pretty good for texture, but a nice slab of textured mushroom protein would be great. I don't really care if it tastes like animal flesh or not, but having the texture would be great.