And whose to say that this proposed method is not going to concentrate contaminants faster than self-grown meat on the plains?

at a remove

I really prefer my own idea... genetically engineer easy-to-grow zucchini so it has the taste and texture of meat! Scientists are already identifying the genes coding for enzymes that synthesize meaty flavor molecules. Vegan meat! It could even be grown organically. All you would need is sunshine, water, and good soil. No solar panels or vats or sterile labs. Every home gardener would want it. Meat, but not really meat, for everyone! There could be beef-flavored, pork-flavored, cod-flavored zucchini... perhaps rare animal flavors as well. Home gardeners might even cross different varieties and develop new heirloom meat-flavored zucchini that will be passed from friend to friend and generation to generation. The tasty zucchini would be so cheap, no one would want to bother trying to raise animals for meat. Win win win for everyone!

Hmmm... wonder what the unintended consequences might be...

Like Peter Singer, I am interested in how people make moral decisions.  So, we need to ask further, regarding human nature: What can change?; What can never change?  And then, regarding what within human nature can change through moral persuasion, we can further ask: What should change?; What should not change?

Not being a meat-eater for three decades at least, and never having especially enjoyed eating meat, I have no idea what sorts of aspects of meat all those serious meat-eaters out there enjoy and demand.  To be sure, lots and lots of meat is served in ways that are quite artificial, from which one might never guess that they had their origin in real living animals, e.g. sausages and hamburgers, and cut into bite-size pieces in Chinese cuisine.  So there provisionally seems to be no obstacle at all to producing meat from hunks of tissue grown artificially in laboratories.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

As far as the "ick factor" oh pleaassee anyone that eats dead animals, should have got over the ick factor - already! I mean whats was great about eating a diseased skin of a corpses?

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

Growing meat is not for the purpose of creating better meat, but for the purpose of saving the natural environment from the ravages of meat production from domesticated animals.  This is infinitely more important than whether people like the meat, which is not a necessity.

I'll let Wolverine pay for my test-tube steak. I'll eat what's in the test-tube & he can eat the test-tube. We'll find out what is necessary.    

Your future is not determined by your past

The book is recommendable for many reasons.  It's thought-provoking, and it's Atwood's scariest novel yet.

The opening sequence is one of the most NewYorkophobic bits of film on record.  But that dissuaded me not a jot, from going to college here.

LiteSong,
"test-tube steak" is presumably cylindrical: so it might be eaten nicely in a hot-dog bun.  With yellow mustard, and onions, etc.

I doubt Wolverine would want to munch on the test tube.  But he might very well try to insert his tongue and lick the insides.

WiscIdea,
I love your idea about what to do with zucchinis.  But my suspicion is that meat-loving meat-eaters would not be satisfied, always finding something a bit off and untrue about it.

Presumably that would not be a problem with lab-grown meat, starting with a true-meat matrix.

But your observations on the impracticality of working with a "culture medium" dependent on "calf serum" are worthwhile.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

On me dit que les real juicy waterbugs faisent des omelettes formidables.

Pero pienso que a mi' me gustari'a ma's la ensalada de big black ants.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

It's much more than icky!  In a natural living organism, evolution designs robust, self protecting (as in immune system) systems.

We have seen artificial confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) destroy these immune systems, producing anti-biotic resistant disease breeding food chan problems.  And GMO soon to add genetic disease to the equation?  it messes with the very evolutionary design down to the bacterial, viral, cellular, dNA level.  ICK!!!!

The amount of pathogenic toxicity proportional to the amount of life bending biochem manipulation.  Stick to animal products from happy animals, free range grazing until they are ultimately eaten.

If you don't agree with the life/death equation of meat eating, go with veggie products.  All the nutrition and taste needed is in those plants!

The eco problems from agribizz chem meat are better solved with biogas power and organic ag working hand in hand.  And good old free range living for the animals.  Free the chickens!!  (thanks fat fredddy)


http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

I have written repeatedly, and ask your help, to various aquatic groups about synthesizing those two essential omega-3 fatty acids, thus alleviating the need to eat fish on a regular basis.

I have been eating flexitarian since 1992, my goal is living on six pounds of meat a year.

We need to tell everyone that eating meat consumes massive petroleum, water and land, we are destroying rainforests to grow crops to fatten cattle.

I believe people are becoming aware.