What is your opinion about laboratory grown meat?!
What is your opinion about laboratory grown meat?
Is it a possible eventual solution to the factory
farm situation? Would you feed your companion
animal cat or dog food made from non-slaughtered
lab-meat. Would you encourage non-vegetarian
people to switch to this type of flesh in an attempt
to end factory farming?
3 months ago
Matt, please educate me on how
you think it may be ethically
problematic. I haven't heard anything
about that yet.
3 months ago
Reva P. please read the question a little more carefuly. I'm talking about
synthethic flesh that is not an animal.
I'm a vegan and animal rights activist
I would never insult other veg'ans.
Nor would I suggest eating anything
that is really an animal.
3 months ago
Cristy I understand your concern and
I share it. However it leads us to the complex issue of which is the greater
evil. Since only 1% of animal deaths
that occur are due to testing I think it
may be worth the sacrifice in order
to save the multitudes of farm animals
that are slaughtered. I also think that
this testing you are referring to would
be temporary. It becomes a question
of whether a minimal amount of attrition
is worth saving billions of lives.
G.G. I agree. I wouldn't touch it with a
ten foot pole but just think of a world
in which replicant flesh has made
murder unnecessary.
Answers:
3 months ago
Matt, please educate me on how
you think it may be ethically
problematic. I haven't heard anything
about that yet.
3 months ago
Reva P. please read the question a little more carefuly. I'm talking about
synthethic flesh that is not an animal.
I'm a vegan and animal rights activist
I would never insult other veg'ans.
Nor would I suggest eating anything
that is really an animal.
3 months ago
Cristy I understand your concern and
I share it. However it leads us to the complex issue of which is the greater
evil. Since only 1% of animal deaths
that occur are due to testing I think it
may be worth the sacrifice in order
to save the multitudes of farm animals
that are slaughtered. I also think that
this testing you are referring to would
be temporary. It becomes a question
of whether a minimal amount of attrition
is worth saving billions of lives.
G.G. I agree. I wouldn't touch it with a
ten foot pole but just think of a world
in which replicant flesh has made
murder unnecessary.
As a vegetarian I personally would have nothing to do with it!
Did you know that work is already being done on this kind of thing? I'm not gonna dig up links but I know companies have ramped up the same kind of tissue culturing techniques used for things like burn victim skin grafts! What's slowed major commercial exploitation is that they can't get the texture they want.
I actually would consider this a viable method to replace not just factory farms but all direct animal exploitation (with all the cruelty that entails). Yes, when this stuff actually hits the market I would encourage meat eaters to use the stuff instead of 'natural' animal flesh. This will be (along with the veggie analogs) the advance that encourages folks to stop killing animals for food! I could see a future where folks would be upset about eating meat from 'real' animals. Wasn't there a Star Trek or such that had someone upset about about eating real dead animal instead of replicated flesh?
That's the real promise of this kind of technology!
Edit:
The first two answerer's aren't considering that with tissue culture you would KNOW that the product didn't contain excess hormones or contaminants. Would you rather eat a slab of dead cow that could be full of prions, viruses, bacteria, anti-biotics, hormones etc. or a lab tested and certified beeph steak? Think about it!
Edit:
In my usual style of making a long answer longer
Quorn is NOT genetically modified! It's a natural soil fungus that's grown in a manner similar to yeast. I'm not a big fan of Quorn but that bit of mis-information needs correcting.
No animals need be killed for this stuff at all! It just takes ONE small tissue sample to start a culture with. When that tissue culture is large enough you divide it to start many new cultures. Think of something like a sourdough starter where a small piece is always saved to make the next batch of sourdough. A plant based analogy would be Geraniums. They don't normally set viable seed so every single plant you see for sale was actually started from a tissue culture!! The 'quicker' readers will realize we're talking *real* cloning here
All this (and more) is *possible* right now. For us veggies I've seen tissue cultures of lettuce and bell pepper. That'll hush some meaty trolls that scream about us killing plants
What's stopping troubleshooting and more development is money; not just money to ramp up production but also money interests freaking about their own pocketbooks. The meat/dairy industry is (rightly) worried about the potential as is anyone involved in agriculture. There were some folks that 'pooped' themselves when they found out some of this stuff has already been eaten by humans (lab researchers
I've been following this "sci-fi" technology for years since (as some know) I'm opposed to *all* killing and this is a step in the right direction. What I *really* want is the ability to convert raw energy directly into food! (one of the ramifications of E=Mc squared
Source(s):
Vegetarians do not eat fish. A fish eater is a Piscivore. Spread the correct word!
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/piscivo...
I don't know about all that. I think that the current meat is so hyped up with growth hormones we have 14 year old girls walking around with D cup bras and 14 year old boys with beards. It's already showing its effects.
I personally wouldn't trust it. Its a little too sci-fi to think about right now, but all this "laboratory grown" stuff seems creepy to me. I don't want my produce grown in a laboratory either though. It would take years and years to prove its safe.
It's not as if they're developing this type of meat without extensive animal testing ...
Still, although I do not see this as a morally (or healthfully) acceptable food for vegetarians, I would recommend it to non-veggies in hopes of reducing factory farming. I wouldn't, however, recommend this before I recommended vegetarianism.
"What is your opinion about laboratory grown meat?
Is it a possible eventual solution to the factory
farm situation?"
- I don’t think I know enough about it to comment on this question. I would guess not, at least not for a wile. But I don't know.
"Would you feed your companion
animal cat or dog food made from non-slaughtered
lab-meat[?]"
- If they could not eat a Vegan diet for some reason, yes.
"Would you encourage non-vegetarian
people to switch to this type of flesh in an attempt
to end factory farming?"
- I would not encourage it, because I still think that it is ethically problematic, but it is a step (a quite weird step) in the right direction.
Edit: Toph, yeah the idea of a chia pet meat factory sickens me too. However it's a clever Idea! Ma ma ma meat factory!
Edit: It really depends on how they go about creating the product. Again, I'm not well versed on this, but I’ve heard that the type of vat grown meat that is the closest to being successful requires an animal donor to start the tissue culture every new cycle of growth.
If we can get away from that and only one animal of each species is used once (which is still a problem IMO), that would be better.
If in fact, we can create a self-sustaining vat grown meat industry these products cease to be animal foods and become bio-engineered foods. Therefore, I think they would fall out of the realm of animal rights issues. I fear this is not the answer to our problems because a great many people will take issue with eating this food. Wile vat grown meat will reduce consumption of animal products at least marginally I have serious doubts that it will end animal agriculture. I feel my answer is unsatisfactory, I need to research this issue more, I’ll try and do that and then get back with you.
@ Reva: acille1jo is a regular on this section of Y!A and is also a Vegan. His question is not an attack. Please do not harass our fellow Vegans for starting one of the few meaningful discussions that take place here. Thanks..
I think it's a GREAT idea. No animal would have to be hurt just for our consumption and everyone could still enjoy the taste of it. The only thing I would be worried about would be health reasons, but I would definitely eat it sometimes if it was proven to be healthy and everything. well, maybe I wouldn't because I take pride in my being a vegetarian, but I would think it great because there are so many people out there who will not give up meat no matter what, so it's still good if they're eating non-animal meat...if that makes sense...
Oh, and i would definitely feed my pet this kind of food.
The whole idea of it gives me the willies. It would be generations before the effects of eating that type of thing is known. I think enough of our foods already contain highly questionable chemical ingredients. Its only in recent years that the effects of eating "natural" meat are being understood-increase in cancer, heart disease, diabeties, obesity, arthritis etc. It is widely known that these illnesses have become more common since factory farming started. In the earlier days, most meat that was consumed was hunted and killed in the wild, and was eaten much less often. Most people eat meat at all three meals a day-a practice that was uncommon before. I think it would take a very long time to see what the effects of a cultured meat would have on health. Factory farming is so supported by the government, that its unlikely that anything will ever get it to cease. Whats the point of stopping bad behaviour if the government is giving you a huge subsidy to continue it? Sad, but too true. I would encourage vegetarianism over lab flesh, but would encourage lab flesh over factory farming
No one has approached the environmental benefits of such a product.
Less "live"stock means less pollution, Less water thrown into that particular source of food, Less land destroyed to support the market, less gas used to transport meat.
I think environmentally speaking it would be tough to argue against. Soon we may have "grow your own meat" gift packages. Chia pet meat factories right in your own home.
Health wise - I am not going back to meat for any reason. And just thinking about Chia Pet meat factories kind of sickens me.
ed. Matt I read your "ma ma ma meat factory" a few times but just got it. Very Funny indeed. For the rest of yu think about the chia pet commercials.
Now I will be singing it all day and laughing.
horrible! but not any worse then the popular vegetarian food quorn which is not only labratory grown but a gentically modified FUNGI! GROSS PEOPLE!!!!
Nothing good for your body has come from a laboratory. Even synthetic vitamins that millions of people pop every day have been proven to be ineffective. I doubt lab grown meat will be free of negative side effects and I doubt our bodies will know how to digest it.
It's still animal.
This is a vegetarian & vegan board. Why would you ask such a question here? Why to you think it's OK to insult people in this manner?
Well, I guess that if someone were intent on poisoning their body with meat (and I'm talking about eating it frequently--I am a vegan but I know that very occasional meat doesn't really hurt anybody) I'd prefer them to eat lab-grown stuff, sure. Then it only affects them, right?
I wouldn't, though. I guess I don't have any really intelligent reason to be against it--it just makes me nervous. And I wouldn't feed it to a companion animal, either. I'd actually rather feed a cat real meat (organic and free range and all) than lab stuff.