5 ms·

I've been vegan for 30 years so obviously I think it is about time. From an innovation/start-up perspective, this is an exciting time. If things continue moving

by issa 6y ago

I've been vegan for 30 years so obviously I think it is about time. From an innovation/start-up perspective, this is an exciting time. If things continue moving this quickly, lab-grown meat will be regularly available soon. Whatever your personal feelings about animals, this is a huge win for the environment.

cmroanirgo 6y ago
For me, anything "lab grown" is definitely less preferable to naturally grown foods. So, even though I'm vegetarian, I would absolutely prefer to be eating meat than fake food, with unknown genetic and cellular anomalies. Just look at the chemical cocktail that's in any off- the- shelf "meat alternative" products. No way do I want that stuff in my body. If Tesco, or any big retailer was honest about increasing sustainability, they'd be focusing on how to decentralize warehousing and shipping, and a simple solution is to support local farming. Unfortunately, the world doesn't operate this way, and we're stuck with this need to purchase food from far flung parts of the world.
- issa 6y ago
  I don't think there is a single answer to improving how humans create and consume food. You're definitely right that transportation is a huge issue. So is waste, environmental damage from animal agriculture, etc. The closer we can get to Star Trek replicators, the better.
thefounder 6y ago
I think vegan/fake "meat" and lab-grown meat are/should be marketed as two different things, the later still being meat that happens to grown in a lab. I'm not sure why people would be interested to consume meat grown in a lab considering all the unknowns/risks.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  > I'm not sure why people would be interested to consume meat grown in a lab considering all the unknowns/risks. Which ones? In general, most food-borne illnesses are a result of either faecal contamination, diseased animals, or poor post-production handling. 'Lab-grown' meat should be generally free of the first two. Obviously nothing's perfect, but it should in general be much easier to avoid contamination than in a slaughterhouse.
  - thefounder 6y ago
    >> In general, most food-borne illnesses There is a risk of contamination in a lab as well and to be honest I don't understand why this kind of food is not subject to clinical trials. Some people(at least in the EU) try to avoid food resulted from livestock injected with hormones or other syntetic chemicals. Now you tell them to eat food grown(with hormones) in a lab. I can't give you a good source on the subject so below is the first google result. "most of the studies on safety are done or supported by the companies themselves.” "It’s also long been known that breast cancer risk increases with higher lifetime exposure to estrogen. These facts have led many to question whether the continued use of synthetic estrogens in livestock is safe." "The effects are very hard to study, experts say, because hormones are naturally present in both food and our bodies. Plus, the effects could be subtle and take years to show up." https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/safer-food-healthier-you https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/safer-food-healthier-you
    - rsynnott 6y ago
      > There is a risk of contamination in a lab as well Sure, but if it happens you can detect, determine what the problem was with the process, and fix it. With a slaughterhouse, you can reduce levels of contamination, certainly, but eliminating it is probably impractical; a certain risk is inherent to the process. > and to be honest I don't understand why this kind of food is not subject to clinical trials Right now, lab grown meat is effectively not commercially available, and being treated as a weird experimental thing. If it does become commercially available, it will presumably be subject to significant regulation. > Some people(at least in the EU) try to avoid food resulted from livestock injected with hormones or other syntetic chemicals Generally growth hormones for farm animals are _illegal_ in the EU. And you could reasonably expect similar rules to come in for any synthetic meat that might be available.
- swiley 6y ago
  Personally I would completely switch to lab grown meat immediately as long as it seemed safe and was reasonably affordable. I'm not a fan of eating animals but it's already hard enough to have a healthy diet without artificially restricting things, right now it just doesn't make sense for me.
go13 6y ago
so, if cows go extinct or nearly extinct like pandas because there is no demand for beef, will we blame vegans? :)
- issa 6y ago
  In the conversation that led to me originally going vegetarian, I made this argument. Sometimes I wonder if I care more about animals, or just relying on sound logic in arguments.
- throw192837465 6y ago
  So the alternative is we keep them around purely for selfish reason so we can impregnate, rape, and eventually kill? If I was a cow I’d want to be extinct. We have a plethora of options available today that don’t require an animal dying or suffering and yet we still turn to mass killings to feed our desires. Humans really are at the bottom of the pyramid.
  - go13 6y ago
    Living beings normally strive to make their spices survive as a group. There are billions of cows now. The bad side is that they are not evolving in the way how it could be in the wild, but they are not going extinct like dinosaurs either. Also, cows were hunted and killed by other animals in way more cruel manner than people do this now. I think they way how they are treated will be even better with time. Therefore their life along with humans is way more humane than what would happen to them in wild. Not so bad deal.
  - go13 6y ago
    and btw, " If I was a cow I’d want to be extinct." - that's a good philosophical point that indicates the lurking nature of some of the vegans, vegetarians etc. They are not only would rather think that it is better for a cow to die than to live some time, but also .. ..they would spread the idea that maybe humanity would better off going extinct.. And this idea genocidal idea can lead to things similar to what was done by different totalitarian streams of 20th century: Nazism, fascism, communism. J.B.Peterson talks about this quite interestingly. But "woke" folks dont like him ;)
tomjen3 6y ago
The environment and consumers, but it will also destroy much of the American heartland. No need for raising the meat, growing the food to feet the animals or for butchering the meat means that a lot of people are going to be out of work, and there isn't going to be that much else.

by issa 6y ago

cmroanirgo 6y ago

For me, anything "lab grown" is definitely less preferable to naturally grown foods. So, even though I'm vegetarian, I would absolutely prefer to be eating meat than fake food, with unknown genetic and cellular anomalies. Just look at the chemical cocktail that's in any off- the- shelf "meat alternative" products. No way do I want that stuff in my body. If Tesco, or any big retailer was honest about increasing sustainability, they'd be focusing on how to decentralize warehousing and shipping, and a simple solution is to support local farming. Unfortunately, the world doesn't operate this way, and we're stuck with this need to purchase food from far flung parts of the world.

issa 6y ago
I don't think there is a single answer to improving how humans create and consume food. You're definitely right that transportation is a huge issue. So is waste, environmental damage from animal agriculture, etc. The closer we can get to Star Trek replicators, the better.

thefounder 6y ago

I think vegan/fake "meat" and lab-grown meat are/should be marketed as two different things, the later still being meat that happens to grown in a lab. I'm not sure why people would be interested to consume meat grown in a lab considering all the unknowns/risks.

rsynnott 6y ago
> I'm not sure why people would be interested to consume meat grown in a lab considering all the unknowns/risks. Which ones? In general, most food-borne illnesses are a result of either faecal contamination, diseased animals, or poor post-production handling. 'Lab-grown' meat should be generally free of the first two. Obviously nothing's perfect, but it should in general be much easier to avoid contamination than in a slaughterhouse.
- thefounder 6y ago
  >> In general, most food-borne illnesses There is a risk of contamination in a lab as well and to be honest I don't understand why this kind of food is not subject to clinical trials. Some people(at least in the EU) try to avoid food resulted from livestock injected with hormones or other syntetic chemicals. Now you tell them to eat food grown(with hormones) in a lab. I can't give you a good source on the subject so below is the first google result. "most of the studies on safety are done or supported by the companies themselves.” "It’s also long been known that breast cancer risk increases with higher lifetime exposure to estrogen. These facts have led many to question whether the continued use of synthetic estrogens in livestock is safe." "The effects are very hard to study, experts say, because hormones are naturally present in both food and our bodies. Plus, the effects could be subtle and take years to show up." https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/safer-food-healthier-you https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/safer-food-healthier-you
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    > There is a risk of contamination in a lab as well Sure, but if it happens you can detect, determine what the problem was with the process, and fix it. With a slaughterhouse, you can reduce levels of contamination, certainly, but eliminating it is probably impractical; a certain risk is inherent to the process. > and to be honest I don't understand why this kind of food is not subject to clinical trials Right now, lab grown meat is effectively not commercially available, and being treated as a weird experimental thing. If it does become commercially available, it will presumably be subject to significant regulation. > Some people(at least in the EU) try to avoid food resulted from livestock injected with hormones or other syntetic chemicals Generally growth hormones for farm animals are _illegal_ in the EU. And you could reasonably expect similar rules to come in for any synthetic meat that might be available.
swiley 6y ago
Personally I would completely switch to lab grown meat immediately as long as it seemed safe and was reasonably affordable. I'm not a fan of eating animals but it's already hard enough to have a healthy diet without artificially restricting things, right now it just doesn't make sense for me.

go13 6y ago

so, if cows go extinct or nearly extinct like pandas because there is no demand for beef, will we blame vegans? :)

issa 6y ago
In the conversation that led to me originally going vegetarian, I made this argument. Sometimes I wonder if I care more about animals, or just relying on sound logic in arguments.
throw192837465 6y ago
So the alternative is we keep them around purely for selfish reason so we can impregnate, rape, and eventually kill? If I was a cow I’d want to be extinct. We have a plethora of options available today that don’t require an animal dying or suffering and yet we still turn to mass killings to feed our desires. Humans really are at the bottom of the pyramid.
- go13 6y ago
  Living beings normally strive to make their spices survive as a group. There are billions of cows now. The bad side is that they are not evolving in the way how it could be in the wild, but they are not going extinct like dinosaurs either. Also, cows were hunted and killed by other animals in way more cruel manner than people do this now. I think they way how they are treated will be even better with time. Therefore their life along with humans is way more humane than what would happen to them in wild. Not so bad deal.
- go13 6y ago
  and btw, " If I was a cow I’d want to be extinct." - that's a good philosophical point that indicates the lurking nature of some of the vegans, vegetarians etc. They are not only would rather think that it is better for a cow to die than to live some time, but also .. ..they would spread the idea that maybe humanity would better off going extinct.. And this idea genocidal idea can lead to things similar to what was done by different totalitarian streams of 20th century: Nazism, fascism, communism. J.B.Peterson talks about this quite interestingly. But "woke" folks dont like him ;)

tomjen3 6y ago

The environment and consumers, but it will also destroy much of the American heartland. No need for raising the meat, growing the food to feet the animals or for butchering the meat means that a lot of people are going to be out of work, and there isn't going to be that much else.