Japanese scientist Mitsuyuki Ikeda has developed a “burger” made from soya, steak sauce essence and protein extracted from human feces.

The meatpacking industry causes 18 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to the release of methane from animals. 

The livestock industry also consumes huge amounts of feed and water in relation to the amount of meat that it yields, and many find the industry to be inhumane and cruel to animals. 

These factors alone are reason enough for vegetarians to replace their meat intake with vegetable proteins and legumes. 

But Ikeda, a scientist at the Environmental Assessment Center in Okayama, sought to further the field of alternative proteins by recycling a form of protein-rich waste: sewage mud.

“Sewage mud” is exactly what you think it is – poop. 

Ikeda’s process begins by extracting protein and lipids from the “mud.” 

The lipids are then combined with a reaction enhancer, then whipped into “meat” in an exploder. 

Ikeda then makes the poop more savory, by adding soya and steak sauce.

Currently, the price of the poop burgers are 10-20 times that of regular meat, due to the cost of research, but he feels they will even out in a few years. 

He admits that “some people” may have a psychological aversion to eating artificial meat made of their own poop at first, but thinks many would be open to personally completing the food chain. 

He also notes that the burgers are extremely low in fat.

inhabitat.com