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Ask HN: Will you ever eat meat that is grown in lab?
What are all the bad events that can come along with any progress in this direction?
- Spoom 8y agoSure. I like meat, but if there's a version that I can eat that doesn't involved slaughtering animals, that's a net positive.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 8y agoAgreed. I’d prefer it if it otherwise the same (taste/nutrients).
- Arthanari 8y agoSo basically you would prefer to eat any artificial thing which matches the taste and nutrient or a natural food?
- ajeet_dhaliwal 8y agoHardly anything natural about the animals (or even fruits and vegetables) we eat. They’ve all been specially and quite artificially bred for our consumption.
- drdeadringer 8y agoI recently heard a comment on a non-topical podcast along the lines that "everything is GMO". Your favorite herloom tomatoes at the farmer's market, the corn, the lettuce, your dog, the beef, your cat, yourself. GMO is "evolution, faster" or at least customised in a lab. If one thinks I should have a fundamental problem with this view, I'd like to hear why.
- Arthanari 8y agoIf it's not slaughtering animals then its not meat. Its like suddenly some one comes and calls some thing meat n then we order 2 of those. Vegetarian is a reasonable alternate if we don't want to slaughter meat. Meat like tasting vegetarian alternate is also reasonable. But lab grown meat is the most unnatural thing. How does eating a thing which is 99% unnatural constitute as eating food. Its just eating a thing. There is a crowd which wants to avoid as much artificial things in food and eat natural food and there is a crowd which wants to eat 100% artificial thing like lab grown meat. I wonder which crowd will win in the end.
- Jefro118 8y agoWhat exactly are you referring to with "99% unnatural"? My understanding of lab grown meat is that it is intended (ideally) to be equivalent to meat that you would obtain through traditional means so the difference is in the production method, not the product. It is artificial because it's made by humans. If it gives the same product with a significantly reduced negative impact on the environment then I'm all for it (although I would agree that people should actually try and eat less meat too). What's your objection to the process being artificial?
- agitator 8y agoHave you seen farm raised chickens and cows? I would argue that there is nothing natural about that either. The modern farm animal wouldn't survive in the wild. They are bred to grow at insane rates, are fed hormones, and get too heavy to be mobile. Not to mention, what impact this has on the nutritional content and chemical content of our meats, and what impact they are having on us. If you are concerned about eating naturally, I think you should start allocating time in your day to hunting for wild food. Nothing about the human diet is "natural" anymore.
- Arthanari 8y agoPoorly growing cattle is a real problem, The more people stop purchasing such products and move towards responsibly sourced and grown chicken or other animals that provide meat this problem can be solved. But why not work towards such a right solution and look for shortcut and artificial solutions like lab grown meat. How can a lab grown meat and a animal that naturally grow be one and the same?
- 06rg11 8y agoYes if it tastes the same and is much cheaper than it is at the moment
- atonse 8y agoYes, without a doubt. It takes many of the downsides of meat out of the equation (animal cruelty, environmental impact, use of antibiotics). I don't know how the health effects would change though.
- Arthanari 8y agoDon't you think a lab grown meat is something that is 100% antibiotics? It is odd how one says Yes without a doubt to something that one eats, but also is aware of being unaware of its health effects. It is very scary though... Don't you think we should eat something that is guaranteed to bring good health to us...
- d0lph 8y agoWouldn't lab grown meat have no antibiotics since they probably won't encounter any random diseases.
- Arthanari 8y agoAny idea why they wont have any disease? Because they are not even a living entity. they are just a non living thing, like a stone or sand or plastic or shells in the ocean. Would humans be inclined to eat a non living thing? As a living being i think we should be eating other living beings, like a vegetable or organic salmon... If we can easily believe that eating lab grown meat and real living natural food is same then why don't we believe fake news as real? They also sound real, they also have words, they also have websites they also appear to have likes... This effort to make the boundary between nature and artificial disappear isn't it like making ourselves disappear, are we humans not natural beings?
- d0lph 8y agoI was thinking because they don't need to be exposed to farm conditions, with disease being able to transmit from animal to animal. Because meat isn't true or untrue, it provides things your bodies need, things it doesn't need, or things that are harmful to it. I'll be honest, I'm not totally on board, but I don't see any reason we shouldn't grow meat in a lab, and probably many benefits.
- truesy 8y agoI am not a vegetarian, but I would happily pay double to eat meat that doesn't result in an animal being killed. But it'd have to taste okay, at least, for me to make that jump. Doesn't have to be perfect, but has to satisfy a craving for a burger or something like that.
- Arthanari 8y agoWhy settle for the at least? when we can have the perfect one. I think there are things beyond just craving, Y isn't it about eating the most healthy food? If we care so much about "an animal being killed" then what to do to tigers and lions and other carnivores. I think a lion eating a deer feels more natural than a man eating a lab grown thing. Why this much push into loosing our nature? Apart from capitalism could there be any other reason?
- agitator 8y agoI think it comes down to progress. Most of the meat we consume has a heavy toll on the environment. And with many other countries developing, gaining wealth and having the purchasing power to consume meat regularly, it's going to be a disaster. We innovate in so many respects, why can't we innovate with tasty, satisfying ways to consume proteins and fats that don't have the destructive nature that our current system has?
- jadeydi 8y agoNo, can't believe that.
- sidyapa 8y agoI am waiting for the day when I can buy lab grown meat. I am a vegetarian since March 17, 2012 and boy do I miss meat. I had to give up meat because I couldn't stand killing animals for my taste but now lab grown meat will give me the pleasure without the guilt!
- Arthanari 8y agoWhat if all the lions in this planet think I couldn't stand killing a deer?
- drdeadringer 8y agoWhere on this planet do lions naturally live alongside deer? This what-if seems as unnatural as the lab meat you seem so concerned about.
- Arthanari 8y agoDon't lions eat meat?
- cypherg 8y agoAs soon as possible.
- danielovichdk 8y agoAbsolutely not. It's not about the meat, it's about how poor judgement peope have in terms of sustainability. Meat is meat. And meat is ok. Whats not okay is mass production of it, or any other kind. Instead of growing anything in a lab, think about what you consume. This goes for everything. I would much rather eat a chicken that is produced locally than one I have no idea what went through. This goes for everything I eat. Even though I am not even close to being fanatic. Its okay to consume but please do it respectfully and reflect upon it. Lab grown food is simply to futuristic for me
- d0lph 8y agoLab grown meat is being touted as more sustainable, since you don't have to raise an entire animal. Also, wouldn't lab grown meat be more precise, like with normal chickens you have no idea what exactly what they ate, or how they mutated. But with lab grown meat it would be the same every time.
- Arthanari 8y agoRaising an animal and growing a piece of meat is entirely different things, they don't compliment each other. Raising an animal is giving it natural food and let its different organs do its work and let it grow into full animal by using natural processes that has been happening for ever. Lab grown meat is using artificial process to force some flesh to grow which we recently assume have figured out n force ourselves to believe its authentic, This is something that we have found in last few years. Why would anyone believe a noob tech when there is a grandiose nature in the picture. >> like with normal chickens you have no idea what exactly what they ate, or how they mutated. like with lab grown chicken you have no idea what chemical process got misunderstood/ abused, what particular pound of meat did not go through all the process, and how the human error got over looked, and what decaying factor is involved in this... How come in the same species one crowd can be thinking organic/ natural/ home grown food and other crowd can be thinking lab grown meat...
- d0lph 8y agoMutations in nature can happen totally randomly, with no guarantee that they will benefit humans. Whereas in a lab maybe something will go wrong, once we get it right, it's right forever. On the one hand, I'm not aware of any research that says eating organic foods is more healthy. Also I think it's people reacting to new things, like some people hear lab grown meat and are grossed out, others are excited about a more efficient way of farming. New technology is always divisive it seems.
- SHOwnsYou 8y agoI'm not interested in lab grown meat. I don't each much meat anyway, but the meat that I do eat is grass fed & finished and raised semi-locally. I prefer the path closer to nature than to the lab.
- Arthanari 8y agoWhat if we stop eating chicken and then they go extinct? Would those who caused this by switching to lab grown meat feel bad about it? And if they go extinct then is there any net benefit in we stopping to eat them?
- davman 8y ago> What if we stop eating chicken and then they go extinct? People keep chickens as pets. Also eggs.
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoSure, but the world population of chickens probably still crashes...
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoNo, at least not for a fair amount of time before it comes out. I want to wait for real (independent) data on health effects and nutrition. I want to wait for data on long-term health effects. By independent, I mean not just independent of the grower, but perhaps also of the FDA.
- yellowapple 8y agoI wouldn't mind being that data.
- Arthanari 8y agoWhat gives you so much motivation to be that data?
- Arthanari 8y ago>> long term health effects Does it mean 100 years of data. Shouldn't we see 100 years of data before we decide on whether something is safe to consume. I am sure we have 100+ years of data that consuming naturally grown chicken meat is healthy.
- drchaos 8y agoIf it is tasty and affordable, why not? Almost everything we eat nowadays is already highly optimized through selective breeding over thousands of years, so adding lab-grown meat does not make our food less "natural" than it is already. On the other hand, lab-grown meat will probably use much less resources compared to traditionally produced meat, while not causing any issues with regard to (bad) treatment / killing of actual animals.
- wemdyjreichert 8y agoI may be a bit old-fashioned in this regard, but no, I (probably) wouldn't. A lot of "fake meat" includes soy, which is known to simulate estrogen iirc. Also, it's kinda for the same reason I won't eat bugs (even if safe and tasty): it's just not to my taste, and that's okay.
- Arthanari 8y agohttp://realfoodmedia.org/lobbyists-distort-our-idea-of-a-healthy-diet/ http://realfoodmedia.org/lobbyists-distort-our-idea-of-a-hea...