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qyron @sopuli.xyz

Lab grown protein: if created, would you move to it?

As a thinking experiment, let us consider that on the 1st of January of 2025 it is announced that an advance making possible growing any kind of animal tissue in laboratory conditions as been achieved and that it is possible to scale it in order to achieve industrial grade production level.

There is no limit on which animal tissues can be grown, so, any species is achieveable, only being needed a small cell sample from an animal to start production, and the cultivated tissues are safe for consumption.

There won't be any perceiveable price change to the end consummer, as the growing is a complex and labour intensive process, requiring specialized equipments and personnel.

Would you change to this new diet option?

187 comments

  • Definitely. I see no downsides.

    I don't eat very much meat as it is. But if I could drastically reduce the suffering inflicted when I do I would not hesitate.

  • Reminder that the meat you buy at the grocery store is as also as human modified as it gets and NOTHING like the wild game that our ancestors ate or even the farm animals from 100 years ago. The animal itself is probably GMO, spends its entire life in a steel cage standing in its own shit and piss and is given specialized processed feed to optimize how much meat it produces (or just has a tube down its throat so we don't have to worry about it eating fast enough). Not to mention tons of antibiotics that are given to the animal just to ensure it survives the hell we put them through which definitely makes it into the meat and therefore into you as well. And they're slaughtered and butchered by underpaid overworked factory workers who have to balance fulfilling brutal quotas with carefully extracting the meat and not getting it contaminated with shit from the animal's guts or the myriad other disgusting things around the meat that you wouldn't want to eat (you can guess how well that usually goes).

    Animal cells (without the animal itself and also no central nervous system to experience suffering) growing in a clean, well controlled lab in tanks of sterile cell media doesn't sound so bad in comparison.

    Additional reminder that nearly all of the worst infectious diseases in history have been caused partially or completely by animal agriculture: the plague, spanish flu, smallpox, whooping cough, swine flu, bird flu, covid, etc. So if you're worried about the long term health implications of lab grown meat, you should be ten times more worried about long term the health implications of regular meat, to the point where you should be worried even if you don't eat meat.

  • You haven't mentioned if there are any ethical concerns with this new meat; e.g. environmental cost of the production process, what kind of human labour is required to create it, who is providing that labour and under what conditions are they working.

    Provided I had no ethical concerns with it, sure, but a lot of modern innovations tend to have these issues and I assume lab-grown meat would have these issues too.

    Edit: Also, I'm opposed to animal captivity, so if there's an ongoing need to collect samples from captive livestock then no, I wouldn't. If it's a "collect it once then it keeps reproducing from the lab samples forever" type of thing then sure.

  • I would sooner argue for eating insects vs. lab-grown protein made by a corporation. I have no trust for corporations to produce safe and emergent solutions to the problems we face as a species and world. They have no incentive to do the right thing and put the brakes on when things are looking bad.

    • I always assume any hypothetical beneficial scenario is happening under socialism or another system that discards the profit motive because while we're dreaming might as well dream big.

      • Just trying to ground things into our current reality. But yeah, I think in a world where there is an incentive to do good, it's a no-brainer that we could do stuff like this in a lab and in a much more efficient way than agriculture or raising livestock/etc. for protein sources.

    • As someone that has the genetic trait that enables me to smell insects... thank you, but no thank you.

      Regarding corporations controlling lab meat production: regulation, control, overview.

      • Those are fairy tail words in the US

      • TIL, and of course I echo the sentiment of the other commenter that those words don't truly exist here in the US, and I agree with you that the world is a much larger place than the US. I just would hope that European countries (or whatever other countries are concerned about the health of their people) lead the charge if such a solution to our protein came to be.

    • And the insects would be provided by whom if not a huge corpos? You create some false equivalence here, it's the ages old struggle of lowering the food costs of feeding workers by making us eat worse things. Potatoes instead of wheat, highly process foods, fats and sugars in everything and ultimate fucking step is looming: eating bugs. You can't go worse than that unless it's a fucking soylent green which i can guarantee you would be somewhere next in the line after you allow the mega rich to feed you bugs.

      • I was attempting to communicate that I would sooner argue for eating insects over lab-grown protein mainly because of the danger I see in the concept of a food source that is only able to be produced in a lab, not that I am going to seriously argue for insects to be seen as anything other than a potential option for protein. Plenty of other cultures utilize insects in food willingly, and I'm all about arguing for consent and what's best for everybody individually.

        I think we will have to get very creative to solve our problems with agriculture and food production, and I think all options should be fairly entertained if they can be done in a way that is truly safe while prioritizing the will of the people. I'm of the opinion that our food sources should be more natural and that's also what I was attempting to touch on.

  • The only thing I'd wait for is for the process to be refined enough to be more eco friendly than just eating real meat. I'd do it, but until there's proof of it being more sustainable and won't tank my blood thin/thickness levels (blood thinners sometimes suck), I would be down to try it at the very least.

    Though I would receive resistance in changing my diet until either my dad changes his eating habits or I move out on my own because my dad absolutely refuses things like plant based meats, so I know he'd most likely resist lab grown meat as well. It's also hard for my mom and I to switch to a healthier dinner diet since both my dad and older brother wouldn't dare change their diets to something like a Mediterranean or some other healthier because they can be picky eaters (especially my older brother).

  • Kind of depends on if it's good, tbh.

    If it's just mediocre, I might try and work it in some meals where I'd use lower quality meat (e.g. sauces, sausage, burgers, etc). Then I'd just get a good real steak from a local ranch a few times a year to scratch that itch.

    If the difference is not really perceivable or better, then hell yeah. Easy choice. I might even venture into other meats that I wouldn't eat otherwise like lamb, dog, horse, or even human.

  • still waiting for the mass to consume it and see what happen, also waiting for the price too

  • making meat green? Sure, it would be cheaper and less destructive.

  • Not right away. I have grown to have a healthy caution towards new things when it comes to what i put in my body. I would give it maybe 5 years or so. Enough time for them to do some multi-year studies on any potential health effects. Im not just gonna take some companies word that these meats are what they say they are.

    I have no problem with the idea of lab grown meat on its own i just don't trust companies to do it right.

  • Without hesitation. If the taste, consistency, nutrition, and price are all the same, then the only differences would be whether an animal was bred to suffer until slaughter and the likelihood of illness from consumption. I'm assuming that stuff like e coli would be nearly impossible through this. Plus less demand on farm meat means less chance of coronavirus mutations like the 2009 swine flu outbreak. And less of a need for the real estate, feed, and potable water to grow those animals. I must be missing something because I'm struggling to see a downside here.

    I'm sure that, in the same way that there's still a market for objectively inferior exploitatively mined diamonds as a status symbol instead of lab created diamonds, there would still be a market for rEaL meat where "you can really taste the suffering" or whatever.

    Now here's the more interesting question that actually has me on the fence: if "growing any kind of animal tissue" is what has been achieved, where would you stand on consuming lab-grown human meat? Is it immoral? Are there risks? Should such a thing be restricted in some way like alcohol or handguns? What would be the proper etiquette and presentation and everything if it became socially accepted? What wine would pair best with it? Or would it be more of a beer pairing? If this weren't socially acceptable, would no-suffering chimpanzee meat be okay?

    If it only takes a small cell sample, would it be unethical to dig up extinct animals like mammoths or dodo specifically to enjoy their meat? If that's okay, and it chimps are okay, would neanderthals be okay to eat? Where would we draw the line?

    • I’m sure that, in the same way that there’s still a market for objectively inferior exploitatively mined diamonds as a status symbol instead of lab created diamonds, there would still be a market for rEaL meat where “you can really taste the suffering” or whatever.

      I don't think the value is sadism in itself, but the supposed natural purity; it's the sense of authenticity. They'd be more likely to market it like "As nature intended", "no nasty chemicals, organic", "no added dihydrogen monoxide", like that. You can play on the silly fear of scary chemical names.

      I suppose animal furs is a relevant case study. Synthetic alternatives exist, but the real thing is considered a status icon by idiots.

      That all said, fuck those cruel idealistic pieces of shit and the suffering they enable.

      Now here’s the more interesting question that actually has me on the fence: if “growing any kind of animal tissue” is what has been achieved, where would you stand on consuming lab-grown human meat? Is it immoral?

      Human meat, the inevitable question!

      I see literally no ethical problem with eating non-sentient lab-grown meat, and I don't see why it being human flesh should be treated specially. I'm not even trying to equivocate humans and other animals, I don't consider human meat to be a human being, so there's no farming torture I'm concerned about, and I care about the meat's death as much as I care about a jellyfish or grass being squished. It's not like they're farming an entire conscious human like The Matrix, that would be uneconomical. (that said, what if humans were lab-grown for scientific research like lab animals? That's a more confronting question to me!)

      Are there risks?

      I'm no expert, but I suspect human diseases are more transferable than other animal meat diseases, so that's a consideration. Contamination is always a concern, I'd assume.

      What would be the proper etiquette and presentation and everything if it became socially accepted?

      I don't care. I can buy chicken nuggets and eat them with my elbows, if I want. I'll do that with human meat too. I already side with Frank Reynolds' perspective on the whole 'respect for the dead' tradition, put me up on a mountain for vultures and flowers like the Zoroastrianists, but this isn't even a sentient, let alone social, being. The only real etiquette I would consider is to make sure people aren't unknowingly served it, same with pork and other meats, because that could be unreasonably cruel to someone who is alive.

    • You're looking for an answer or just going rethorical?

      Asking seriously.

187 comments