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Welcome to c/[email protected]. Broadly, this community is a place to discuss veganism. Discussion on intersectional topics related to the animal rights movement are also encouraged.
'Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals ...'
— abridged definition from The Vegan Society
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Mrs and I tried lab grown fois gras quail, apparently the first in Australia. Amazing to be able to buy this in a restaurant, after hearing about it year after year.
It was certainly meaty, a flavour you simply don't get with any meat-free chicken, really pungent and distinct (not that I've ever had dead quail).
A place called Bottarga in Brighton, Melbourne. Wasn't cheap, but I'd pay top dollar to support the transition.
I’ve always been curious on the vegan perspective on lab grown meat. I’m sure it’s not a monolith but is there a general consensus?
Lab grown meat is not tied with suffering so it's definitely vegan in my book.
Opinion:
Chewing on lab grown tissue is not something I'm looking forward to. I don't need it in my life, I'll stay plant based. If it replaces a dead animal I'm fine with it. But I doubt it will. I feel like lab-grown meat is like hydrogen for Big Oil:
A thing that they're working on, it will be great in the future. But until then, we can continue burning oil/eating meat.
I am vegan for the health benefits: avoiding colon cancer, avoiding type 2 diabetes, improved cholesterol , reducing visceral fat, avoiding overeating, longer healthier life, etc.
Not contributing to animal cruelty is a bonus but not my motivation so lab grown meat isn’t going to change the way I eat.
If it becomes efficient enough to reduce greenhouse emissions then that would be the only benefit I would get from it.
Social level opinion: While I hope it is successful in making cruelty free living more accessible, I hate what lab grown meat represents, and I hate the idea that human beings are so self-centered that the only way they would give up meat as if someone else made an exactly perfect replication of it. I also unfortunately do not think it’s going to succeed, because even today if you served somebody a bunch of different burgers made from different animal meats, and in there you also included a beyond burger, I doubt that person could identify which one was vegan, unless they are some kind of meat connoisseur. So why wouldn’t I expect people to just convince themselves that whatever imperfections are going to be in the lab grown meat are a dealbreaker?
Practical personal level opinion: I wouldn’t have a problem with lab grown burgers, hot dogs, and most sausages. To me these are basically just “processed protein tubes and patties”. And if that’s what the party was grilling then i won’t complain. But I also think that if I’m at the grocery store and that’s what I want to eat that week, I’m really just gonna care about the sustainability and the price to quality ratio more than anything. Now if it’s just a cut of meat on the other hand with gristle, connective tissue, a grain, that just skeeves me out. But I wouldn’t say it offends my morals or anything, just seems kind of grotesquely self-indulgent and offputting
I think the general consensus would be: As long as you don't need to keep exploiting animals to get the stuff to make the lab grow meat out of, it is considered vegan.
However, a lot of vegans still say they would not eat it.
This. Many (most? all?) companies currently producing lab-grown flesh do continue to exploit animals in order to produce it, so not vegan, but there's no reason that it couldn't be vegan.
I made watermelon tuna sashimi for a meetup and most of the vegans were repulsed because it was so meaty.
How do you make watermelon meaty?
It comes out and looks just like a raw tuna steak. Cut it into sashimi style slices and put on it on sushi rice with a small wipe of wasabi. If your watermelon was too sweet it'll come through in the end product. It's uncanny in the texture and flavor.
Sounds tasty. I might be too lazy to try it though 😕
It took a bit of work but it did make quite a lot of "tuna". Enough for an sushi entire party with 20 people from only half a melon.
I'm not personally interested in eating it. Just not appealing to me (and, I'm deathly allergic to seafood besides, which lab grown fish is still a problem there).
But I'm happy it exists, and hope it is environmentally friendly/cost effective enough to save animals, and improve the environment.
I avoid meat/dairy to help the environment, prevent animal cruelty, and improve my health (specifically cholesterol).
I suspect lab-grown meat helps the environment and prevents animal cruelty, but it’s still really dangerous for me to eat, so I still wouldn’t touch it. Seems like a net positive for the world, though.
Well, one could argue it is as vegan as yeast or bacteria cultures (such as vegan yogurt).
AFAIK there are no long term studies about the health effects of eating cultured-cell food
Unless there's a mechanistic reason to suspect harm, (all ingredients are biologically equivalent to animal counterparts), I doubt there'll be a mad rush from anyone but the meat industry to put out studies.
Sounds like the classic animal ag scaremongering around soy milk or Quorn.
I actually spoke to some cultured food scientists the other week and that is almost word-for-word what they said; that in focus groups this question comes up every time and they want to see decade+ studies of people who eat it.
It may be genetically the same, but genetically the same as an animal with illness? Fish is the simplest to produce, but beef will take decades to get right.
I mean, I suspect EVERY new food would benefit from decades of studies, and every scientist would say they want that. But we don't have decades to reduce meat intake.
And no, we're not growing ill fish, there's no way to do so. There are certain theoretical risks: (prion diseases? - cell cultures don't use brain or spinal tissue. Cancer from immortal cells? - regulators have already banned these cells. Bacteria in vats? - less risk than in live animal tissues. Bioaccumulation of unexpected compounds? - already regulated by standard FDA protocols. Antibiotic use? - only used initially).
Otherwise there is no suspected or known mechanistic risks to consuming cultured meat. But don't take my word for it, you're already vegan, you're already a true blue bloody legend. I appreciate your concern wholeheartedly ❤️
But meat eaters already eat parasite ridden, zoonotic disease filled puss bags for dinner, so I'm preparing my vitriol for them.