In a world where the animal’s well being is valued more then the economic output of the producer this might be true. However in our current economic system the economic incentive favors taking as much blood as possible without killing the animal while providing minimal relieve.

I have no faith in a regulatory framework being enacted and enforce which will minimize this suffering while keeping businesses profitable.

Given the topic of animal suffering here, what does the full picture of an animal used for this purpose look like? Are they treated any different to animals intended for direct consumption?

My assumption is that the animals will lead the same life. While this is something that'd cut down direct consumption I doubt that's ever eliminated.

So it becomes a math game. Either this cow produces the 700lbs of meat in a normal lifetime or with lab meat it produces n tons of meat (depending on how much meat can be produced per sample).

Who knows, maybe this ends up with a few cows living long lives since it's not their meat that matters but rather the quality of the stem cells they produce. But I'm guessing it's more likely these stem cells first get extracted from animals either already butchered or destine for the butcher.

> it's not their meat that matters but rather the quality of the stem cells they produce.

Note that we are talking about the growth medium here, which is used to grow the stem cells into the final product. So it should be the quality—or much rather the quantity—of the extracted serum from the animal (specifically the animal’s fetus or womb).