Lab grown meat, does it make a difference?

[Frenger]

You may have read that recently the first lab grown burger was cooked and eaten.

BBQ Sauce

Now, I know there are a few vegetarians on here, [sarcasm]Inferno being one of them[/sarcasm] and my question is, would you eat this product?

My reasons for me being a vegetarian, as far as I am aware, are mainly ethical. I don't like the way animals are raised for food and I hate the conditions they are kept in. I justify the fact I'm not a vegan by only buying local farm products straight from the source, that way, I can see how the animals are treated.

Now, when I read this story my immediate reaction was "I still wouldn't eat it" which suggests one of two things. Either it's simply the idea of eating meat that I find wrong, and my ethical reasons are ad hoc justifications.

Or, I've not eaten meat for so long, that the whole thing just seems wrong by definition.

So, in short, as a vegetarian, would you feel comfortable eating lab grown meat knowing that it is completely ethical?

 

[Nemesiah]

I'm vegan (no, no applause is necesary :lol

I saw the same thing in youtube yesterday



I am vegan for ethical reasons also, (God knows it has done nothing for my figure) but after pondering it for a while I came to the following conclusion:

No, I would not eat the lab grown meat.

Here is why:

Human bodies (I believe or so most vegan advocates say) do not proces animal products all that well. Yes we can cope with the fats and the acidity etc... but meat is not all that healthy for us. Sure if you are a starving caveman and you get the opportunity to eat a deer once a month then it is actually a great thing; it is full of aminoacids that are very hard to come by in plants (though insects do have) like B12 and fatty acids and is good source of other stuff like Iron I believe. The problem comes with the idea that animal products have to be present in abundance in every meal. The body doesn't do well under those conditions, we get clogged arteries, embolisms etc... because our bodies are not good at dealling with that much animal product in our meals. So the lab grown meat would be going back to packing my arteries full of cholesterhol (they may be able ti make "light" meat with little or no cholesterhol though but then, what would be the point?).

Another reason is that for some time now, the animal products industry has been filling said products with hormones and antibiotics that while not being immediatly fatal do seem to have a close relationship with many ailments (like obesity and allergies). I am aware that vegetables are full of pesticides and are nowadays Monsanto's genetic mutations but (at least from what I have read) are not that dangerous to us (I do scrub everything I'm going to eat rather thoroughly though). The animal product industry needs to do this since the demand for cheap animal products is at an all time high. Lab grown meat will have to conform to the rules of the economy and thus will more than likely be chuck full of hormones (maybe not antibiotics) in order to grow at an acceptable rate so it becomes price efficient, and thus may not be very healthy to consume. Lets wait a couple of decades to see the impact and revisit this once all the kinks have been worked out.

The third and final reason why I will not be partaking in the lab grown meat is that while I used to love meat and cheese and eggs and chicken etc... I have been weaned of those products. It wasn't that hard but I believe that in consuming lab grown meat it would make it very easy to switch back to regular meat (kind of like gong from having not smoked for 13 + years (Thank you Jesus!) to smoking light cigarrets).

 

[Vivre]

Due to the on first glance being 'ethically' grown lab meat I could not refuse it if it was part of a meal or as single product.

Still I wouldn't feel 'comfortable' with it and not seek to use it. (... like I've never aimed to substitute meat anyway)

I doubt that any monocultured or artificially produced groceries is healthy. Neither for itself, as it likely misses important ingredients that round up and support its effects, nor on a wider scale where I fear to find grave disadvantages and again various harms. There the question of 'ethics' rises again.


I do see the big advantage if one day we could grow organs from stem cells. So testing to grow meat is one obvious step on the way. But it shouldn't necessarily be turned into another industry branch where food is supplied by a demanding monopol....
Thanks Nemesiah for addressing some specific points.


But then again it came to my mind it might be a great thing, [sarcasm]because we could fully give up animal meat and grow our needs with our human stem cells[/sarcasm]. ... we could come up with the first 'true Hamburger' :mrgreen:


Small sidenote: in the german language 'food' is 'Leben-s-mittel' which implies that it is a 'medium of life' and should be as vital / alive / vivid as possible to support the living.

 

[Prolescum]

Not being a veggie or any of the sub-variants (vegan, guanogan etc), this thread doesn't apply to me :cry:

 

[australopithecus]

As a non-veggie, I wouldn't eat it based on the review it got. Having the meaty bits is all well and good, but the flavour comes from the fatty bits. You might as well just eat Quorn.

 

[Frenger]

I'm vegan (no, no applause is necesary :lol

I was a vegan for about two weeks, nearly died, therefore applause is necessary. *Applauds*

I agree with your first two points wholeheartedly. This third point though..

The third and final reason why I will not be partaking in the lab grown meat is that while I used to love meat and cheese and eggs and chicken etc... I have been weaned of those products. It wasn't that hard but I believe that in consuming lab grown meat it would make it very easy to switch back to regular meat (kind of like gong from having not smoked for 13 + years (Thank you Jesus!) to smoking light cigarrets).

...is something I had not considered. Do you think that would be a possibility? You see, I don't think I actually ever really enjoyed meat all that much anyway so a taste of something similar would probably not build that bridge back. Do you really equate it with smoking? I like that analogy, but it seems very strong.

 

[Frenger]

Not being a veggie or any of the sub-variants (vegan, guanogan etc), this thread doesn't apply to me :cry:

Every thread applies to you

 

[Frenger]

You might as well just eat Quorn.

And what's wrong with Quorn, might I ask?

 

[Nemesiah]

I'm vegan (no, no applause is necesary :lol

I was a vegan for about two weeks, nearly died, therefore applause is necessary. *Applauds*

I agree with your first two points wholeheartedly. This third point though..

The third and final reason why I will not be partaking in the lab grown meat is that while I used to love meat and cheese and eggs and chicken etc... I have been weaned of those products. It wasn't that hard but I believe that in consuming lab grown meat it would make it very easy to switch back to regular meat (kind of like gong from having not smoked for 13 + years (Thank you Jesus!) to smoking light cigarrets).

...is something I had not considered. Do you think that would be a possibility? You see, I don't think I actually ever really enjoyed meat all that much anyway so a taste of something similar would probably not build that bridge back. Do you really equate it with smoking? I like that analogy, but it seems very strong.

When I used to eat meat, I was really passionate about my meat. I'm mexican, we eat a ton of meat; meat is everywhere in our menu and diet. I would have meat 6 to 7 days a week (this is not unnusual in my country).

I have non vegan friends (actually I don't know any other vegans, people tend to go the ovolactovegetarian way), and every freaking saturday they come to my house and cook meat in my house (I am relaxed about my veganism like that). I can't say that it is difficult for me to abstain since for me eating meat is simply no longer food but it does smell good.

I used to smoke and had quit for about 2 or 3 years and then had a taste of cigarretes and got back in the damn drug, it took me another 2 years (and 3 packs a day) to finaly stop the madness.

When you are addicted to something all it takes is one reincidence to go back after you have been clean. Giving up meat was (I believe) one of the best and most honest things I have done in my life, I would not like to jeopardize it by eating some freak meat that (as far as people are commenting tastes bad due to the lack of fat).

 

[australopithecus]

You might as well just eat Quorn.

And what's wrong with Quorn, might I ask?

It's as tasty as wet cardboard, with the same consistency and I speak as someone with a freezer full of the stuff as per my stupid diet. I made a bolognese the other day with Quorn mince, it just wasn't the same.

 

[Frenger]

It's as tasty as wet cardboard, with the same consistency and I speak as someone with a freezer full of the stuff as per my stupid diet. I made a bolognese the other day with Quorn mince, it just wasn't the same.

Have you tried facon? In my opinion, it's by far the best vegetarian pun.

 

[Laurens]

If they used stem cells to grow a lump of human flesh, would it be wrong to eat that?

 

[Engelbert]

If they used stem cells to grow a lump of human flesh, would it be wrong to eat that?

What if they were your own stem cells?

...... and you were doing the eatin'?

 

[WarK]

If they used stem cells to grow a lump of human flesh, would it be wrong to eat that?

What if they were your own stem cells?

...... and you were doing the eatin'?

Ouroboros1 [Public domain], by Abake, from Wikimedia Commons​

 

[Frenger]

If they used stem cells to grow a lump of human flesh, would it be wrong to eat that?

My other half suggests that if you eat the meat of a cow or a sheep or whatever, why not eat the flesh of a human?

Other than the obvious legal barriers, is there really such a difference?

 

[Frenger]

Ouroboros1 [Public domain], by Abake, from Wikimedia Commons​

Did he have to have a rib removed to do that?

 

[Laurens]

If they used stem cells to grow a lump of human flesh, would it be wrong to eat that?

My other half suggests that if you eat the meat of a cow or a sheep or whatever, why not eat the flesh of a human?

Other than the obvious legal barriers, is there really such a difference?

Difference in ethical terms? Clearly that could be the subject of debate, however I'd fall on the side that eating a human is worse than eating another species. I'll go into why I think so if you're interested (at the discretion of the mods of course who may deem it off topic in this particular thread) and when I have time to make a more pithy response.

Difference in terms of taste? I wouldn't know.

 

[Frenger]

Difference in ethical terms? Clearly that could be the subject of debate, however I'd fall on the side that eating a human is worse than eating another species. I'll go into why I think so if you're interested (at the discretion of the mods of course who may deem it off topic in this particular thread) and when I have time to make a more pithy response.

Sounds good, I've started this thread because, really, although I agree with you, I can't think of a single reason why, so it'd be nice to look into it a bit

Difference in terms of taste? I wouldn't know.

Correct answer

 

[DepricatedZero]

Aside from being one of the universal taboos, eating human meat can spread any diseases that human had, and supposedly can cause Kuru as well.

Kuru is analogous to Mad Cow Disease which, incidentally, comes from feeding beef to cows.

Also, did I misread this or did the earlier post suggest that it's ok for vegans to eat insects?

 

[Nemesiah]

Aside from being one of the universal taboos, eating human meat can spread any diseases that human had, and supposedly can cause Kuru as well.

Kuru is analogous to Mad Cow Disease which, incidentally, comes from feeding beef to cows.

Also, did I misread this or did the earlier post suggest that it's ok for vegans to eat insects?

Proper vegans do NOT eat insects. Some unwary vegans do eat insect byproducts in things that do not openly state that they contain such additives such as some kinds of ketchup that use red insect paste to give it a more vibrant color.

Veganism is about not using ANY animal products since (AFAIK) the vegan idea is that animals are not to be treated as resources but rather as individuals AS LONG AS it doesn't conflict with the individual's well being.