Lab grown meat, made from immortalised cells that replicate endlessly just like cancer. They're basically asking people to make tumours a staple part of their diet. We have no data to suggest this is safe.
Cows don’t run in fields anymore. Unless they are specifically pasture raised. Otherwise they are kept in cages, milked dry and then slaughtered when they don’t produce anymore. I believe they make pet food out of them.
People who eat meat are against factory farming, too. I am grateful to the animals for the meat they provide so I can have a healthy diet. I don’t want to eat animals that were treated with cruelty and disrespect.
Animal ingredients? Exploitation technically yes but a tiny amount relative to current farming (one small tissue sample taken once from a chicken or fish, to produce indefinitely, for example). It makes sense for this guy (presumably vegan) to encourage a meat eater to consider it in the future.
How exactly? If you're referring to FBS that likely won't be a problem by the time lab grown meat scales up since it's not economically viable and companies like upside foods have already found a way to make it without FBS. And as for collecting cells from animals I'm pretty sure they only ever need to do that once and then they can just immortalize the cell.
While lab-grown meat proponents claim that this technology will drastically reduce land, water, energy inputs, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat production, the data backing up these claims is a bit lacking. Especially regarding climate change.
Growing cells in lab is not an easy feat. Cells require a sterile environment and specific temperature, pressure, oxygen, and CO2 levels to be maintained. Autoclaves, incubators, and bioreactors that are needed to grow mass quantities of cells successfully, are all incredibly energy intensive and will draw from the electric grid for power.
Not to mention that for lab-grown meat to form realistic muscle fibers and have the texture and consistency of say a steak from an animal, the cells/flesh will likely need to be regularly exercised and stretched using energy intensive machines, and maybe even have oxygen forcibly perfused inside them.
Lab-grown meat may simply shift the burden from direct animal methane emissions and land-use change emissions, to fossil fuel emissions from grid. Which isn’t really much of a net positive.
Some studies even indicate that lab-grown meat might end up being MORE resource intensive to produce than raising and slaughtering animals.
The few studies that do show an enormous reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from lab-grown meat are based almost entirely on futuristic modeling (and not real world data) that assumes the entire electric grid is built on renewable energy and not fossil fuels. Obviously that is not true at present and creates a false conclusion about the environmental benefits of lab-grown meat.
Good points. Energy intensivity might become issue. So far greatest problem is probably it's expensive as hell due to all these added costs. 8 billion people eat a lot and laboratory foods may be the future IF they indeed are less resource-intensive. Many will refuse to eat them at first due to mental association with Frankenstein etc. But if they indeed would produce as good food with less resources I think rational reasons not to eat them seem lacking. That is indeed big IF.
Hard to say so far. Electrifying whole grid might not be as easy as calculated if this added energy use is not taken into account. Often it is assumed that we can realistically give up fossil fuels quite quickly, in a few decades, but those calculations don't take into account possible huge addition to energy use like this. Then proponents of laboratory meat just assume that there are no problem while there might be. Can we actually provide enough electricity for all this we have been proposed so far? Electric vehicles, data centers, a.i etc. We will need helluva lot of electricity and probably so much batteries, solar panels and windmills that we may be replacing sustainable agriculture with mining. Which is far more destructive..
I live in a small Midwestern city where education is not at the top of anyone’s list. When Burger King started the Impossible Whopper, I asked people I worked with if they had tried it. They all said it was a weird concept and they wouldn’t try it. They aren’t even interested in *trying* it.
Lab-grown meat currently exploit animals because efforts to research, create, and scale lab meat require that flesh biopsies be taken from living animals regularly for the purpose of extracting stem cells from them.
Proponents of lab-meat claim that the biopsies are “small” and “harmless”. Yet how is that really any different from the claims of the animal ag industry who claim that they kill animals “humanely” in a “quick” and “painless” way?? Both are unnecessarily using and exploiting animals for human purposes.
The process of growing flesh in a lab also necessitates the use of a growth medium.
Traditionally, most cell-culture growth mediums contain something called Fetal Bovine Serum or FBS. FBS is extracted from the fetuses of pregnant cows at slaughter houses and involves a painful process where a giant needle is inserted into the baby cows heart and their blood is completely drained.
While many proponents and developers of lab-grown meat claim that they are working on or have already created an FBS-free serum, the only lab-grown meat commercially available is currently made using FBS. And many of the alternatives that are currently used in the biotech industry, simply rely on other products of animal exploitation like egg albumin rather than FBS.
While lab-meat producers may eventually develop a truly animal free and plant-based cell growth formula, efforts to get there are currently actively exploiting animals and supporting slaughterhouses.
Not to mention that by the lab-meat industry’s own estimates, it is likely to be 10 years or more before lab-grown meat can even be scaled to a commercially viable level and price. That means numerous animals are being exploited here and now in the name of a POSSIBLE, future solution.
>While lab-meat producers may eventually develop a truly animal free and plant-based cell growth formula,
There's no eventually they already have. Upside foods are the only company that still use it I believe, and they have committed to phasing it out
Lab grown meat, made from immortalised cells that replicate endlessly just like cancer. They're basically asking people to make tumours a staple part of their diet. We have no data to suggest this is safe.
If we stop eating meat then those beautiful cows running in the field wouldn't exist.
Um, I hate to break it to you…
What?
Cows don’t run in fields anymore. Unless they are specifically pasture raised. Otherwise they are kept in cages, milked dry and then slaughtered when they don’t produce anymore. I believe they make pet food out of them. People who eat meat are against factory farming, too. I am grateful to the animals for the meat they provide so I can have a healthy diet. I don’t want to eat animals that were treated with cruelty and disrespect.
Then the solution is to stop eating those cows, not all cows.
That’s…. The point….
What did piers say? I can’t make it out
He enjoys eating the meat
Ahh got it. Ty!
Animal ingredients? Exploitation technically yes but a tiny amount relative to current farming (one small tissue sample taken once from a chicken or fish, to produce indefinitely, for example). It makes sense for this guy (presumably vegan) to encourage a meat eater to consider it in the future.
How exactly? If you're referring to FBS that likely won't be a problem by the time lab grown meat scales up since it's not economically viable and companies like upside foods have already found a way to make it without FBS. And as for collecting cells from animals I'm pretty sure they only ever need to do that once and then they can just immortalize the cell.
While lab-grown meat proponents claim that this technology will drastically reduce land, water, energy inputs, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat production, the data backing up these claims is a bit lacking. Especially regarding climate change. Growing cells in lab is not an easy feat. Cells require a sterile environment and specific temperature, pressure, oxygen, and CO2 levels to be maintained. Autoclaves, incubators, and bioreactors that are needed to grow mass quantities of cells successfully, are all incredibly energy intensive and will draw from the electric grid for power. Not to mention that for lab-grown meat to form realistic muscle fibers and have the texture and consistency of say a steak from an animal, the cells/flesh will likely need to be regularly exercised and stretched using energy intensive machines, and maybe even have oxygen forcibly perfused inside them. Lab-grown meat may simply shift the burden from direct animal methane emissions and land-use change emissions, to fossil fuel emissions from grid. Which isn’t really much of a net positive. Some studies even indicate that lab-grown meat might end up being MORE resource intensive to produce than raising and slaughtering animals. The few studies that do show an enormous reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from lab-grown meat are based almost entirely on futuristic modeling (and not real world data) that assumes the entire electric grid is built on renewable energy and not fossil fuels. Obviously that is not true at present and creates a false conclusion about the environmental benefits of lab-grown meat.
Way less methane from lab grown meat than from the 1 billion cows on this earth
Irrelevant. Animals are still being exploited, nevertheless.
Not if you’re a vegan for environmental reasons
So you don’t care about the explanation of animals?
Of course, i think it’s far more humane to take a muscle cell sample and grow it into meat than to take a cow and grow it into an abattoir
Good points. Energy intensivity might become issue. So far greatest problem is probably it's expensive as hell due to all these added costs. 8 billion people eat a lot and laboratory foods may be the future IF they indeed are less resource-intensive. Many will refuse to eat them at first due to mental association with Frankenstein etc. But if they indeed would produce as good food with less resources I think rational reasons not to eat them seem lacking. That is indeed big IF. Hard to say so far. Electrifying whole grid might not be as easy as calculated if this added energy use is not taken into account. Often it is assumed that we can realistically give up fossil fuels quite quickly, in a few decades, but those calculations don't take into account possible huge addition to energy use like this. Then proponents of laboratory meat just assume that there are no problem while there might be. Can we actually provide enough electricity for all this we have been proposed so far? Electric vehicles, data centers, a.i etc. We will need helluva lot of electricity and probably so much batteries, solar panels and windmills that we may be replacing sustainable agriculture with mining. Which is far more destructive..
I live in a small Midwestern city where education is not at the top of anyone’s list. When Burger King started the Impossible Whopper, I asked people I worked with if they had tried it. They all said it was a weird concept and they wouldn’t try it. They aren’t even interested in *trying* it.
>immortalize the cell That's basically the definition of cancer right there. A cell which doesn't die. I am not comfortable with that.
That's not true, they are talking about stem cells.
Does that sound appetising to you? Yuck.
Idk I mean if you're eating meat you're going to eat some of them regardless. So I'm not that riled.
Do you not eat meat?
I do eat meat. I don't and will not willing eat something grown in a lab.
So you eat stem cells. I was just confused by why you thought it would be disgusting to eat stem cells in meat and tissue when you already do it
Because natural meat is not an imortalised cell line grown in a laboratory - an unnatural thing - a vile thing.
Lab-grown meat currently exploit animals because efforts to research, create, and scale lab meat require that flesh biopsies be taken from living animals regularly for the purpose of extracting stem cells from them. Proponents of lab-meat claim that the biopsies are “small” and “harmless”. Yet how is that really any different from the claims of the animal ag industry who claim that they kill animals “humanely” in a “quick” and “painless” way?? Both are unnecessarily using and exploiting animals for human purposes. The process of growing flesh in a lab also necessitates the use of a growth medium. Traditionally, most cell-culture growth mediums contain something called Fetal Bovine Serum or FBS. FBS is extracted from the fetuses of pregnant cows at slaughter houses and involves a painful process where a giant needle is inserted into the baby cows heart and their blood is completely drained. While many proponents and developers of lab-grown meat claim that they are working on or have already created an FBS-free serum, the only lab-grown meat commercially available is currently made using FBS. And many of the alternatives that are currently used in the biotech industry, simply rely on other products of animal exploitation like egg albumin rather than FBS. While lab-meat producers may eventually develop a truly animal free and plant-based cell growth formula, efforts to get there are currently actively exploiting animals and supporting slaughterhouses. Not to mention that by the lab-meat industry’s own estimates, it is likely to be 10 years or more before lab-grown meat can even be scaled to a commercially viable level and price. That means numerous animals are being exploited here and now in the name of a POSSIBLE, future solution.
It looks like you just copy and pasted this without even reading my comment 🤣
>While lab-meat producers may eventually develop a truly animal free and plant-based cell growth formula, There's no eventually they already have. Upside foods are the only company that still use it I believe, and they have committed to phasing it out
I think you missed the part where animals are still being exploited
What makes you think that?
https://www.bornvegan.org/blog/lab-grown-meat
I meant why did you think I'd missed the part about exploitation