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As fake meat gets better, I have to do more double-takes as a vegetarian at restaurants. Are they pulling one over on me? Once it's lab-grown I'm not sure what

As fake meat gets better, I have to do more double-takes as a vegetarian at restaurants. Are they pulling one over on me? Once it's lab-grown I'm not sure what I'll do, unless it's a vegetarian restaurant.

veryworried 8y ago
You should avoid fake meat in general as a vegetarian unless you can personally verify the source, or otherwise accept the risk that sometimes you will eat real meat. I went to a party once where a vegetarian was told a fake meat was used for some chili, but it really wasn't.
- Numberwang 8y ago
  Best chili ever?
- orblivion 8y ago
  Some establishments lie. I've had a cynical attitude in the past. But then, I've had enough places actually come back to me with a correction about their menu that they could have gotten away with not making, or checked on something that I didn't even think to check on, that I have faith that people aren't total scum out there. Parties though? If people disrespect me like that at a party, those are not people I ever want to party with. I'm only going to go so far to verify. I accept the risk, and at a certain point the blame is on them for lying to me.
rhn_mk1 8y ago
Seeing how there are many reasons to be vegetarian, there's bound to be some confusion as some people consider cultured meat vegetarian (due to it not infringing on animal welfare), and others not (due to others not eating meat for other reasons).
- greglindahl 8y ago
  That confusion already exists, plenty of people who are vegetarians for animal welfare reasons also don't want to eat fake meat. People are complicated.
RankingMember 8y ago
I look forward to the fake meat getting cheaper than the real meat so it's economically less attractive to pass off real meat as fake, however unlikely someone doing that would be in the first place.
naravara 8y ago
> Once it's lab-grown I'm not sure what I'll do, unless it's a vegetarian restaurant. As a religious person I've been curious to read up on what religious scholars of various faith traditions with dietary restrictions have to say about lab-grown meats. Sadly, very few seem to have very settled opinions about it. And it's really only the Catholic Church that has the infrastructure to actually consult credentialed scientists to consult on these issues. Most of the Hindu sources I've seen maintain that meat is bad on two levels. One is the ethical dimension of committing violence to things that feel pain. The other is an internal spiritual dimension where they believe meat is intrinsically not Sattvic. So it's less bad than real meat, but still not good. The little I've seen from Jewish and Muslim sources suggests that they don't really see lab-grown as being any different from regular meat with regarding kashrut or halal food.
- orblivion 8y ago
  > The little I've seen from Jewish and Muslim sources suggests that they don't really see lab-grown as being any different from regular meat with regarding kashrut or halal food. What qualifies as a pig? What if it's a hybrid? What if it has only a little bit of pig DNA? Could be interesting times ahead!
  - naravara 8y ago
    >Could be interesting times ahead! Seriously. If you genetically modified a pig to not have cloven hooves does it suddenly become kosher?
  - Simon_says 8y ago
    It's been interesting times for religious people for the last 400 years or so. Doesn't seem to faze them.
- crispyporkbites 8y ago
  At some point you have to accept that relgious scholars can’t answer everything. There is simply no premise for this in texts written thousands of years ago.
rsynnott 8y ago
If lab grown meat becomes common, it will likely because it’s cheap. There’d be no real incentive for this sort of fraud.
markstos 8y ago
My family has re-framed it as "plant-based meat". It's real food to us. I imagine lab meat will develop a distinct name like "clean meat" to distinguish it from traditional animal meat and plant-based meat.

veryworried 8y ago

You should avoid fake meat in general as a vegetarian unless you can personally verify the source, or otherwise accept the risk that sometimes you will eat real meat. I went to a party once where a vegetarian was told a fake meat was used for some chili, but it really wasn't.

Numberwang 8y ago
Best chili ever?
orblivion 8y ago
Some establishments lie. I've had a cynical attitude in the past. But then, I've had enough places actually come back to me with a correction about their menu that they could have gotten away with not making, or checked on something that I didn't even think to check on, that I have faith that people aren't total scum out there. Parties though? If people disrespect me like that at a party, those are not people I ever want to party with. I'm only going to go so far to verify. I accept the risk, and at a certain point the blame is on them for lying to me.

rhn_mk1 8y ago

Seeing how there are many reasons to be vegetarian, there's bound to be some confusion as some people consider cultured meat vegetarian (due to it not infringing on animal welfare), and others not (due to others not eating meat for other reasons).

greglindahl 8y ago
That confusion already exists, plenty of people who are vegetarians for animal welfare reasons also don't want to eat fake meat. People are complicated.

RankingMember 8y ago

I look forward to the fake meat getting cheaper than the real meat so it's economically less attractive to pass off real meat as fake, however unlikely someone doing that would be in the first place.

naravara 8y ago

> Once it's lab-grown I'm not sure what I'll do, unless it's a vegetarian restaurant. As a religious person I've been curious to read up on what religious scholars of various faith traditions with dietary restrictions have to say about lab-grown meats. Sadly, very few seem to have very settled opinions about it. And it's really only the Catholic Church that has the infrastructure to actually consult credentialed scientists to consult on these issues. Most of the Hindu sources I've seen maintain that meat is bad on two levels. One is the ethical dimension of committing violence to things that feel pain. The other is an internal spiritual dimension where they believe meat is intrinsically not Sattvic. So it's less bad than real meat, but still not good. The little I've seen from Jewish and Muslim sources suggests that they don't really see lab-grown as being any different from regular meat with regarding kashrut or halal food.

orblivion 8y ago
> The little I've seen from Jewish and Muslim sources suggests that they don't really see lab-grown as being any different from regular meat with regarding kashrut or halal food. What qualifies as a pig? What if it's a hybrid? What if it has only a little bit of pig DNA? Could be interesting times ahead!
- naravara 8y ago
  >Could be interesting times ahead! Seriously. If you genetically modified a pig to not have cloven hooves does it suddenly become kosher?
- Simon_says 8y ago
  It's been interesting times for religious people for the last 400 years or so. Doesn't seem to faze them.
crispyporkbites 8y ago
At some point you have to accept that relgious scholars can’t answer everything. There is simply no premise for this in texts written thousands of years ago.

rsynnott 8y ago

If lab grown meat becomes common, it will likely because it’s cheap. There’d be no real incentive for this sort of fraud.

markstos 8y ago

My family has re-framed it as "plant-based meat". It's real food to us. I imagine lab meat will develop a distinct name like "clean meat" to distinguish it from traditional animal meat and plant-based meat.