3 ms·

This is really about money. Big business is ramping up artificial meat and big farming is also shifting to growing vegetarian food crops. Real meat will be only

This is really about money. Big business is ramping up artificial meat and big farming is also shifting to growing vegetarian food crops. Real meat will be only for the rich. Just the way they like it.

uh_uh 5y ago
Good. Market incentives are not always unethical. If anything, we should strive to build an economy where market incentives align with moral objectives. I welcome a world where artificial meat is practical.
- anon321321323 5y ago
  Except that the artificial meat substitutes we have right now, eg those fake burgers, aren't exactly better. They are worse than the meat they replace. Its not ethical or moral its just the market moving. The vegetarian farming isn't more ethical either. Its usually mono-cropping at large scale. see also: corn.
  - uh_uh 5y ago
    If you want to improve a situation, at first you will make slow progress. But I'm willing to bet on artificial meat being an engineering problem and ultimately becoming better than the real thing.
    - anon321321323 5y ago
      My thing is the amount of processing involved. How much artificial junk is in there? Is it actually seen as food? These aren't trivial questions. The food industry has a habit of lacing processed food with so much junk its barely recognisable.
- EvilEy3 5y ago
  This is as unethical as it can be. Animals are the last thing they think about, and I dread thinking what goes into creation of this artificial meat.
  - uh_uh 5y ago
    What's so unethical about it?
    - EvilEy3 5y ago
      Because it puts economical interests over interests of people.
- cheese_goddess 5y ago
  You welcome a world where affluent elites eath high quality food and everyone else eats shit? Well, you don't have to welcome it. That's the current world. Ask the lady who cleans your office toilets how often she eats organic, or even just fruit, other than tomatoes.
  - nobodyknowsyoda 5y ago
    There exist dumb rich people who drink unpasteurized milk, and then get diarrhea or worse. It seems unimaginative of you to suppose that meat that comes from a live animal will always be necessarily higher quality than meat that comes from cultured cells. I, for one, would prefer a lab grown meat over a farmed meat whose tissues are infused with antibiotics and is generally covered with feces emitted from the slaughtering process
    - cheese_goddess 5y ago
      > I, for one, would prefer a lab grown meat over a farmed meat whose tissues are infused with antibiotics and is generally covered with feces emitted from the slaughtering process For the time being you can find such meat in countries outside the Americas that still have small scale farms, particularly in the EU where the prophylactic use of antibiotics on farm animals is banned since 2018. " It seems unimaginative of you to suppose ..." What is it with the personal tone in comments in these sorts of discussions? I've had the absolute worst experience discussing these things on HN, as opposed to all other kinds of discussion. Other discussions are generally civil and polite. When it comes to meat eating and animals' rights, it's a free for all and everyone thiks it's fine to walk all over good manners and attack other commenters' intellect, their morality, anything. I mean, wtf?
      - uh_uh 5y ago
        Regarding the "unimaginative" comment: OP might have just meant that we are in the very early days of artificial meat and dismissing it now would be tantamount to dismissing the internet in the early 90s.

uh_uh 5y ago

Good. Market incentives are not always unethical. If anything, we should strive to build an economy where market incentives align with moral objectives. I welcome a world where artificial meat is practical.

anon321321323 5y ago
Except that the artificial meat substitutes we have right now, eg those fake burgers, aren't exactly better. They are worse than the meat they replace. Its not ethical or moral its just the market moving. The vegetarian farming isn't more ethical either. Its usually mono-cropping at large scale. see also: corn.
- uh_uh 5y ago
  If you want to improve a situation, at first you will make slow progress. But I'm willing to bet on artificial meat being an engineering problem and ultimately becoming better than the real thing.
  - anon321321323 5y ago
    My thing is the amount of processing involved. How much artificial junk is in there? Is it actually seen as food? These aren't trivial questions. The food industry has a habit of lacing processed food with so much junk its barely recognisable.
EvilEy3 5y ago
This is as unethical as it can be. Animals are the last thing they think about, and I dread thinking what goes into creation of this artificial meat.
- uh_uh 5y ago
  What's so unethical about it?
  - EvilEy3 5y ago
    Because it puts economical interests over interests of people.
cheese_goddess 5y ago
You welcome a world where affluent elites eath high quality food and everyone else eats shit? Well, you don't have to welcome it. That's the current world. Ask the lady who cleans your office toilets how often she eats organic, or even just fruit, other than tomatoes.
- nobodyknowsyoda 5y ago
  There exist dumb rich people who drink unpasteurized milk, and then get diarrhea or worse. It seems unimaginative of you to suppose that meat that comes from a live animal will always be necessarily higher quality than meat that comes from cultured cells. I, for one, would prefer a lab grown meat over a farmed meat whose tissues are infused with antibiotics and is generally covered with feces emitted from the slaughtering process
  - cheese_goddess 5y ago
    > I, for one, would prefer a lab grown meat over a farmed meat whose tissues are infused with antibiotics and is generally covered with feces emitted from the slaughtering process For the time being you can find such meat in countries outside the Americas that still have small scale farms, particularly in the EU where the prophylactic use of antibiotics on farm animals is banned since 2018. " It seems unimaginative of you to suppose ..." What is it with the personal tone in comments in these sorts of discussions? I've had the absolute worst experience discussing these things on HN, as opposed to all other kinds of discussion. Other discussions are generally civil and polite. When it comes to meat eating and animals' rights, it's a free for all and everyone thiks it's fine to walk all over good manners and attack other commenters' intellect, their morality, anything. I mean, wtf?
    - uh_uh 5y ago
      Regarding the "unimaginative" comment: OP might have just meant that we are in the very early days of artificial meat and dismissing it now would be tantamount to dismissing the internet in the early 90s.