As a thinking experiment, let us consider that on the 1st of January of 2025 it is announced that an advance making possible growing any kind of animal tissue in laboratory conditions as been achieved and that it is possible to scale it in order to achieve industrial grade production level.
There is no limit on which animal tissues can be grown, so, any species is achieveable, only being needed a small cell sample from an animal to start production, and the cultivated tissues are safe for consumption.
There won’t be any perceiveable price change to the end consummer, as the growing is a complex and labour intensive process, requiring specialized equipments and personnel.
Would you change to this new diet option?
It already exists. We need to be pouring subsidies into it. I would absolutely switch, if it was widely available.
Not only is it better for the environment, but it’s also not loaded with antibiotics or been exposed to fecal matter at the farm.
1st of January of 2025 it is announced that an advance making possible growing any kind of animal tissue in laboratory conditions
Let me tell ya.
Which protein? Sonic hedgehog? Tell genetic engieneers what protein you want, and they will make yeast make that protein. Or ecoli. Or rice. Or tomato. Or anything else.
Reminder that the meat you buy at the grocery store is as also as human modified as it gets and NOTHING like the wild game that our ancestors ate or even the farm animals from 100 years ago. The animal itself is probably GMO, spends its entire life in a steel cage standing in its own shit and piss and is given specialized processed feed to optimize how much meat it produces (or just has a tube down its throat so we don’t have to worry about it eating fast enough). Not to mention tons of antibiotics that are given to the animal just to ensure it survives the hell we put them through which definitely makes it into the meat and therefore into you as well. And they’re slaughtered and butchered by underpaid overworked factory workers who have to balance fulfilling brutal quotas with carefully extracting the meat and not getting it contaminated with shit from the animal’s guts or the myriad other disgusting things around the meat that you wouldn’t want to eat (you can guess how well that usually goes).
Animal cells (without the animal itself and also no central nervous system to experience suffering) growing in a clean, well controlled lab in tanks of sterile cell media doesn’t sound so bad in comparison.
Additional reminder that nearly all of the worst infectious diseases in history have been caused partially or completely by animal agriculture: the plague, spanish flu, smallpox, whooping cough, swine flu, bird flu, covid, etc. So if you’re worried about the long term health implications of lab grown meat, you should be ten times more worried about long term the health implications of regular meat, to the point where you should be worried even if you don’t eat meat.
Impossible Burgers already exist and are fucking delicious.
But, sure, if I can have pastrami or corned beef again without requiring a cow experience a life full of torment, emit a cow’s lifetime of methane, or have any of that happen where a forest should instead have been left untouched, I’d try it!
I had some impossible patty from restaurants and it’s actually not bad and fairly close to meat flavor.
The beyond stuff is a hard pass.
If it was healthy, affordable, and tasty, then yes.
If it isn’t all three, then Veganism can continue to go fuck itself.
You are not limited to meat and lab-created meat, you know? Vegetarians can tell you to eat eggs and cheese if you want. Vegans will tell you that there are large varieties of plant-based proteins, amongst: lentils, soy, whole cereals, even green vegetables. While these tend to not be as complete nor bio-available as meat or eggs, if you combine them you can have various, delicious and protein-rich meals. I am personally working out a lot and my mostly vegan diet (some eggs and cheese from time to time) is enough for my protein needs.
I mean, if your goal is to keep the meat experience, then yeah, I get your point. But other than that…
I mean, if your goal is to keep the meat experience, then yeah, I get your point.
I think that was indeed very obviously the point. The point of both the comment you were replying to and this lab grown meat idea as a whole.
I’m not really good with obvious subtexts, I’m sorry ^^
Cutting down on eating meat is as good as going vegan
Villianising anyone and everyone who even so much as touches a chicken breast is a damn blunder and totally puts me off against the community
Then again, most vegans that are decent wouldn’t be pushy and tell people they’re vegan
I’ve been vegan for almost 25 years, and vegetarian for couple years before that… and I’d be happy it existed, but I wouldn’t eat it. I don’t miss meat, and the idea of eating any of it just grosses me out.
Same, I get why beyond meat exists but I can’t touch the stuff myself and it sucks when that’s the only option available
I actually like Beyond/Impossible lol. I guess for me it’s about knowing that it’s made out of vegetables.
I’d try it if the price came down. Fake meat is in the store now but I still eat the real thing. Maybe the current stuff isn’t what OP is talking about.
I’d rather go vegan. Falafel all the way.
If I could afford it yeah of course
hell yeah. soon as its not way more expensive than normal meat, i’m down. your proposed technology also sounds like it should mean lab grown replacement organs with zero chance of rejection, which would be amazing.
For seafood yes, but I’m unlikely to bother regrowing the necessary gut biome for other meats
Yes, absolutely. No risk of virus or bacteria, or worse…
Grown to the size you want…
Of the shape and type you want…
No fat (maybe?)…
What’s not to like.
What kinda idiot would want no fat?
The kind that wants realllllly consistent beef jerky.
I’d say price is definitely a factor. I already pass over good cuts of meat for that reason. Also taste/texture/overall experience. If it checs those boxes, and it has been on the market long enough to be confident I won’t get instant cancer, then 100%! A little marbled fat makes it better though.
Yeah, definitely some fat is needed…
But I can see hordes of healthy people looking for fatless meat, as they already do I the supermarkets.
Jesus, people bitch about processed foods but have no issues with whatever shit has to be put into this to make it grow?
Most that bitch about processed foods have no idea what “processed” actually means.
Most of the ‘chemicals’ they’re worried about occur naturally at quantity in plants and fruit.
The lab-grown meat uses the same organics that happen in the animal to trigger growth.
That said, price-wise, real meat will have to become very very expensive before lab-grown meat will be competitive. Breeding cattle is expensive, but a lot of it is just making sure life happens. Cows are hearty, self feed and have immune systems.
That said, price-wise, real meat will have to become very very expensive before lab-grown meat will be competitive.
At least in the U.S., meat production/pricing is heavily subsidized.
You haven’t mentioned if there are any ethical concerns with this new meat; e.g. environmental cost of the production process, what kind of human labour is required to create it, who is providing that labour and under what conditions are they working.
Provided I had no ethical concerns with it, sure, but a lot of modern innovations tend to have these issues and I assume lab-grown meat would have these issues too.
Edit: Also, I’m opposed to animal captivity, so if there’s an ongoing need to collect samples from captive livestock then no, I wouldn’t. If it’s a “collect it once then it keeps reproducing from the lab samples forever” type of thing then sure.
