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Will you eat lab-grown meat? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-06-22
No kidding, it’s not only a thing, it’s now FDA approved.
If you didn’t know that yet, you’re not the only one. The production of lab-grown meat raises a lot of questions. Here is an article that may answer some of them.It’s undated, but apparently at least 3 years old.
The “meat” is produced in a laboratory by using and multiplying stem cells. That sounds like a complex biological process — which may be why the “first lab-made hamburger ... created in 2012, ... cost about $325,000 to produce.” (The Now) That is outside my budget, and I don’t eat hamburgers, but what if the cost were brought down to $11/burger, as projected?
Here are some of those questions for us to consider:
- Is it vegetarian?
Technically not, as an animal stem cell was used. It’s definitely not vegan. However, no animals were mistreated or killed to grow it. It was not fed massive amounts of corn and soybeans, which is why many of us became vegetarian after reading Francis Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet.
-Is it safe to eat?
I mean, the FDA says it is, what more do we need to know?
-Is it creepy that it’s grown in a lab?
Quite possibly. Try to think of it as a step along the road to Star Trek TNG’s replicator.
-Is it different from “plant-based meat”?
Yes. Here is The Now’s explanation (same article as cited earlier):
Plant-based meat ...replicates the taste and texture of actual beef, sausage, and other meats without using any animal products. They achieve this by using special recipes and cooking procedures. For instance, one company ferments genetically-engineered yeast to create heme, a protein that's crucial to duplicating the juiciness, flavor, and color of real meat.
So, both “meats” are basically genetically engineered? Which might also be creepy. I’m new to all this.
The most important questions may be environmental ones, at least for those who are worried that razing the Amazon to grow more methane-burping cows to slaughter and ship to McDonalds poses problems for our survival and that of other species.
- Could it save us from extinction by climate catastrophe?
I mean, who knows really what are the prospects for our species in, say, 5 generations if we all switch to bio-engineered meat (vegans excepted)? I’m pretty sure if we keep going as we are, our prospects are increasingly grim. Quoting The Now again (there’s the link again, in case you missed it):
Compared to conventional beef, lab-grown beef requires 45% less energy use, 99% less land use, and produces 96% fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
That seems pretty easy to digest, to me.
I doubt that most meat enthusiasts are going to give up the habit in order to spare the Fossil Fuel corporations and Big-Ag the embarrassment of having destroyed the planet. So maybe this is a viable alternative to that.
What do you think?
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2177036/-Will-you-eat-lab-grown-meat
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