'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved for sale in the U.S.

Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by klyrs on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @03:21PM (#36423078)

> Though many of the details are proprietary, the basic formula to produce cultivated meat is clear. They began by extracting cells from animals using a needle biopsy. Food scientists no longer need to go back to the animal to extract cells every time, since there are lots of cells stored in a cell bank. The companies can select the cells they want to grow. Then, inside the stainless steel tanks, the cells are fed a mix of the same nutrients an animal would eat, a combination of fats, sugar, amino acids and vitamins, which allows the cells to proliferate and grow into meat.

I do wonder how vegans will feel about this needle biopsy. And while they say there are lots of cells stored in the "cell bank," it does seem like it will need to be replenished with future needle biopsies or there will be genetic drift if they recycle cells from the vat (which might be fine or even desired). Does this mean we can eat whale and, I dunno, bald eagle?

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Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by reaperman on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @03:29PM (#36423181)

Some vegans will be okay with it because the marginal animal suffering needed to produce each additional pound of meat is roughly zero. Some vegans will still not be okay with it because (pick any):

- It's still more energy intensive than plant-based foods.

- Meat, in general, doesn't meet their personal healthiness threshold.

- It's an unnatural way to produce meat with unknown health risks.

- ???

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Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by neuralRiot on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @04:26PM (#36423897)

As a vegan I applaud every step towards the elimination of animal exploitation, this product might be a nice niche for transitioning but once you get accustomed to plant based whole foods you feel strange eating even “meat replacers” as for the environmental impact I don’t think it can get any worst than animal agriculture.

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Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by goodpoint on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @05:07PM (#36424520)

These 3 points are valid for non-vegans as well.

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Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by sonicshadow on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @06:08PM (#36425358)

I'm a vegetarian here but still believe in a world of reduced animal suffering. This is definitely a step in the right direction so I'm all for it. Not that I'll be consuming it because it's still meat.

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Re:'No kill' meat, grown from animal cells, is now approved ... by YellOh on Wednesday June 21, 2023 @04:55PM (#36424328)

Depends how invasive / unpleasant the needle biopsy is. If it can be taken from an animal with minimal pain (using anesthetics) and the animal otherwise lives a life comparable to animals in farm sanctuaries, it seems pretty much ethical to me. Though even if it's very painful and has to be done without anesthetic, I'm guessing the overall suffering from lab-grown meat would still be way lower than conventional meat (so I'd prefer it theoretically, but avoid it practically).

I like plants just fine and don't care enough to pay the [currently] higher financial / environmental costs of cultured meat. But if it were offered to me I wouldn't take moral issue with it, and if I were ever in charge of caring for a carnivore (ex. a cat) I'd pay a lot to get cultured meat instead of conventional meat.

If for some reason I ever had to eat animal meat again, I'd 100% choose cultured meat.

[More pressing ethical question for me: if I think cultured meat is a technology that could be super important to reducing factory farming, is there an ethical obligation to financially support it? If not buying directly, then maybe donating to something like the GFI]

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