The Franken-flesh Follies, aka Lab-created ("cultivated") Meat

After yet another email from a supposedly pro-veg group effusing about lab-created "meat", I really need to address this topic, as it's one I feel strongly about.

Let's acknowledge some realities: "Cultivated meat" a is lab-created, genetically modified product. It is grown with actual animal cells, so it is not vegan or even vegetarian, for that matter. The fans of this who say it will "save animals" act as if this were the only alternative to animal products - and that's not remotely the case.

 

 Plant-based protein, including plant-based analogs to people's favorite meat items, are available virtually everywhere. There are a ton of these products, and most of them are delicious. Many of these are non-GM products, and some are even organic -yay! They didn't originate in the lab.

Lab-created meats are hugely expensive products to develop, and many in this industry will never see a profit. According to a piece in Forbes, "To produce lab-grown meat, manufacturers use what’s called a bioreactor — the same machinery drug companies use to make vaccines. They’re expensive and have long waitlists. Also costly is construction of the factories in which to put the bioreactors. Good Meat CEO Josh Tetrick says a facility able to produce 30 million pounds of cultivated meat would cost as much as $650 million." 

 

As you might guess, all this is extremely energy intensive. Possibly on the scale of (or exceeding) the livestock industry, depending on whose figures you look at.

 

Who is profiting, or at least planning to profit, from this lab-created "meat"? Clearly it cost billions to develop. Why lab-created meat instead of plant protein? And who are the elites investing in this? Bill I-Promote-GMOs-Worldwide Gates, for one. Head honchos at multi-national conglomerates and celebrity chefs for another. Patents are being applied for, presumably being granted. One application is "to manufacture skeletal muscle for dietary consumption". 

And the implication of that is beyond the scope of this little post.

 

And perhaps WHY would be another pertinent question. Are we to believe that these billionaires and huge multinational corporations are driven by altruistic fervor? We already know they don't give a damn about animal suffering, and they certainly don't care about the unknown effects of genetically modified organisms on human health, the environment, and agriculture as we've known it. Do they believe this technology will be profitable at some point in the future? Why are they sinking billions into this, as opposed to converting livestock operations to the higher protein plant crops? Especially since some of these investors are already in the livestock business.

If you are vegan or vegetarian who is thinking the "saving animals" argument makes sense, please consider the following: The vast majority of people are very unlikely to be interested in buying or eating lab-created flesh products. That sounds about as appealing to most people as eating cricket protein (another food novelty, which is currently available in natural foods markets).

One of my concerns around this type of product is that it blurs the line between plant-based protein products and "fake meat", a term already widely used by meat eaters to describe protein products that aren't carcass-based. Some vegans and vegetarians have contributed to this misconception themselves by using terms like fake meat. This has not been helpful.  

To many consumers, it's ALL fake meat, so in that sense the addition of lab-created, genetically engineered flesh foods may actually harm the plant-based protein market.

Fortunately, millions of people do have an awareness that plant-based versions of popular meat products are available, and that their local grocery stores usually have them. When their veg relative stays over, they already know they can pick up some Gardein Breakfast patties, Morning star Farms patties, etc.  Or when they go out with veg friends, they already know that their friends can get a Beyond Burger, or maybe a Sweet Earth burger at Ruby Tuesdays, etc.

 

It's not like anyone has been sitting around waiting for lab-created meat: "Yay, finally we have an alternative to animal flesh!" Nope.

Plant-based proteins have a fraction of the energy footprint that genetically modified lab-meat does, and they are "no-kill" products. So I'm wondering why some in the veg  community are hailing lab-created "meat" as some sort of triumph.  And what's in it for the supposedly vegan-ish animal rights groups online which promote this stuff continually? Especially since really tasty plant-based "meat"/protein products already exist and are available pretty much everywhere. What is their agenda here? There is some reason they're promoting this, and whatever that reason is, it doesn't feel animal-centered to me.

 

My current sense of things is that lab-created flesh food is not helping veganism or animal rights at all, and may in fact be hurting the cause - many people are going to be associating these bizarre sounding lab-meat products with plant-based protein products, and possibly be more likely to reject all of it.