Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball

Re:Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball by merrywhether on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @10:53AM (#11027082)

Ironically, while at least some of the motivation for this is to prevent animal suffering, once we figure out how to grow meat directly, we will have little use for many livestock species and this could actually cause them to greatly decrease in numbers if not disappear entirely. I'm interested to see what we do with pigs, etc if we aren't going to eat them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball by cbd1984 on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @11:22AM (#11027323)

The comic you just thought of: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3105

The actual vegan response: http://ethicalvegan.net/read/will-animals-go-extinct-if-the-...

It comes down to "Stop thinking about extinctions when the factory ranching system is a bunch of concentration camps."; that is, they never deny that their policies would lead to extinctions, they just insist that ending the cruelty is a more important way to frame the debate.

Subsidiary question: Is it really extinction if the gene line is preserved, but never allowed to ramify into an actual organism?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball by xbmcuser on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @12:11PM (#11027697)

Farming takes up a huge amount of land. If all that land is allowed to go wild thousands of species not just domesticated ones will have a chance to come back if they are already not extinct. So decrease of domesticated animals does not automatically mean it will be bad for the animal kingdom or earth as whole.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball by logfromblammo on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @11:29AM (#11027359)

Pigs would likely become pets that are smarter than [most] dogs and more sociable than [most] cats.

It wouldn't take many generations to breed them to be friendly and docile rather than fast growers. Maybe a few more to better adapt them for housebreaking or litter training.

They would also continue to be used in medical research and truffle hunting, of course.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Startup claims to have created first test tube meatball by bovermyer on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @11:18AM (#11027301)

I imagine many of these species will still live in other parts of the world, even if they go extinct in the US.

[ Parent | on HN ]