Is it true that Japanese scientists have developed a technology for creating meat from human excrement?

In the fall of 2022, publications on development appeared on social networks that could solve the problem of lack of food in the world. We checked the reliability of such messages.

According to Internet users, an employee of the laboratory from the Prefecture of Okayama on the island of Hongsu named Mitsyuki Ikeed found in Ile, who is accumulating in the sewer, a large number of bacteria that can process feces in proteins. Scientists allegedly were able to secrete proteins, get artificial meat from them and even prepare burgers who gave volunteers to try - they "found them quite tasty and similar to real meat." In October 2022, Telegram channels were told about this (for example, "Coincidence»From 286,000 subscribers), users"VKontakte" And Facebook*. “Have you thought we had already reached the bottom? No, the most absurd is still ahead, apparently, ”the authors of these posts commented on the message.

To begin with, this story has been this story for more than ten years - in June 2011, many large media outlets told about it as Russian (RBC, "Komsomolskaya Truth","Express Gazeta" News.ru, "Arguments and facts"), And foreign ones (Fox News, Daily Mail, Digital Trends). In 2015, Iveda told about the development of Mitsyuki "Jellyfish"** And again Fox News, in 2016- Life.ru.

Back in 2011, journalists wondered where large media from different countries took information about the invention of Mitsyuki Ikeda. It was especially suspicious that none of the journalists who published the news tried to interview the author of the idea so suitable for a loud title. The university is really There is Several scientific laboratories, also in the provinces are valid Biomass chemical laboratory (she is engaged in the research of cellulose), however, on their sites Iked and/or his sensational study are not mentioned.

At the same time, a person named Mitsuyuki Ikeed really exists. For example, it is mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Environment of Japan - back in 1996 Iked received from the department the status of an adviser for environmental protection (annually for this public position Select From one and a half to three dozen people). The ministry’s website also states that a man specializes in the problems of water quality and global warming, and the place of his activity is just the Prefecture of Okayama. The Iveda profile also claims that he “participated in the environmental NGOs as Deputy Chairman of the UNESCO Association in Okayama”, was a member of the Ecological Council of the Council on the integrated policy of the city of Okayama and gave numerous lectures in schools and other institutions. By the education of Iked, a “professional engineer”, although the ministry does not specify exactly where he received his diploma.

Although Iked Mentioned In several Internet publications in Japanese, posted on the network until 2011, in any of them there is no way to create artificial meat proposed by him. In turn, Japanese -speaking messages on this topic They began to appear Already after the Western media spoke about the invention in mid-June 2011. We were not able to find the appropriate scientific articles for the authorship of the Ikeda, nor press releases issued by the local university, or messages in local newspapers.

Even 11 years ago, our colleagues decided to find out where then Fox News, Daily Mail and other major publications learned about the possibility of creating artificial meat based on human excrement. The details of the process set forth in their publications and digital values ​​coincide with videowhich lasts about two and a half minutes and was published on April 11, 2011 on YouTube by the Ill318 user (1440 subscribers). As a source of the video, which to date, was watched 1.74 million times, the author of the channel indicates the site Liveleak (now closed British competitor YouTube at the turn of the 2000s and 2010s)-there is the same video appeared day earlier. At the same time, YouTube also has earlier copies of the video - one of them was Published AHScotty blogger (945 subscribers) in October 2010 and scored about 90,000 views in 12 years.

Journalists who studied this video noticed many oddities in it.

• In the description of the process of transforming excrement into artificial meat, the purification of the “raw materials” is completely ignored from metals, toxins, chemicals and other dangerous and simply inedible elements - the scientist would probably talk about such important details.
• When demonstrating the photos of Ikedly, Ised uses a very strange pointer - it depicts a female hand with a protruded finger.
• On the refrigerator, where the “meat” is supposedly stored, a sign with Japanese hieroglyphs and the English phrase Shit Burger (“Burger with shit”) is demonstratively pasted - it is not clear why the scientist to call the result of his study is so vulgar (albeit intelligibly).
• In the video, a man shows printouts of publications in the media dedicated to his discovery and written in different languages. It was not possible to find these materials.
• For almost two and a half minutes of the video, the authors of the plot did not show a single colleague who would work on the project with Iveda.
• In the final part of the video, his main character for some reason imitates defecation (being completely dressed), and then eats a burger with artificial meat allegedly developed by him.
• On the final frames of the video shows a banner with an inscription in Chinese (and not Japanese) language.

At the same time, neither in the video itself, nor in the accompanying materials on different platforms, it is not said where and when exactly it was removed. In the lower right corner of the video there is a logo (probably the TV channel) with Two letters, but we were not able to find out which organization or media company it belongs.

Although there are many questions to the video, Ikeed really depicts it. That's just in the video that became viral in 2011, it looks noticeably younger than on the portrait from the document, compiled Five years before. Given that Ikeed was born In 1959, in the early 2010s he was slightly over 50, while the Japanese looks significantly younger in the video.

This discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the video placed in 2010 and the video in 2010 is not at all the primary source of the story about the processing of waste waste into artificial meat. How I found out Journalist Justin Elliot, a very similar plot with the participation of the same Mitsuyuk Ikedya appeared in English-speaking newspapers back in the mid-1990s, when it was about 35 years old. We were able to find such publications, for example, in the British The Guardian And Australian Brisbane Courier Mail (both date back to the first half of October 1993). In particular, it refers to the potential for the use of “meat”, created according to the recipe for Ikeda, for feeding livestock.

Both Elliot and his colleagues from others The publications sent letters with their questions to Ivede and reporters who wrote about him in the mid-1990s. Judging by the fact that the authors of analysis directly promised to update the text in case of receipt of an answer, but did not do this, Ikeed did not comment on the situation for them.

Thus, publications in a number of media outlets, which were massively appeared in the summer of 2011, were based exclusively on YouTube roller, shot in an unknown place and in an unknown time. The technology of processing feces in meat and this process related to the video is not reflected in scientific publications, and its creator Mitsyuki Ikedyuki spoke about his invention only twice: in October 1993 by several Western media and on the viral video of the early 2010s (which, judging by the appearance and appearance of the Japanese himself, could be removed at the same time, in 1993). Subsequently, Ikedly did not give any comments on this occasion, although he continues to engage in activism in the field of ecology.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

** The Russian authorities consider the publication "Medusa" by a foreign agent.

Photo on the cover: Pixabay

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. J. Elliott. The Mystery of the Japanese "Poop Burger" Story
2. N. ARUMUGAM. Meat Made from Human Feces: Hoax or Japan's Best New Invention?
3. Is it true that the use of soy is harmful to health?
4. Is it true that food additives are dangerous to health?