As a thinking experiment, let us consider that on the 1st of January of 2025 it is announced that an advance making possible growing any kind of animal tissue in laboratory conditions as been achieved and that it is possible to scale it in order to achieve industrial grade production level.
There is no limit on which animal tissues can be grown, so, any species is achieveable, only being needed a small cell sample from an animal to start production, and the cultivated tissues are safe for consumption.
There won’t be any perceiveable price change to the end consummer, as the growing is a complex and labour intensive process, requiring specialized equipments and personnel.
Would you change to this new diet option?
As long as it scaled to reasonably the same price as current meat, I’d absolutely do it unless there were some significant downsides like it somehow being even worse for the environment.
This ^
If it’s better for the environment and doesn’t involve the industrial scale poor treatment and wanton slaughter of animals, AND it tastes just as good, I’d be on-board instantly. Even with a premium price hike for consistency.
Roll on quality facon, wagu beeef, and octo-chi k en drumsticks.
I do think that flora missed a trick with vegan, fake meats though…
“I can’t believe it’s not bacon/ burger/ chicken” they would have slaughtered that ad campaign
Is this really up for debate?
Florida bans lab-grown meat, adding to similar efforts in three other states
Much like with the fossil fuel industry squeezing out renewable energies at every opportunity, I suspect we’re going to see the powerful agricultural lobbies shut down competitors until the owners of these big businesses can insert themselves as the sole proprietors of the lab meat industry.
On the flip side, retailers are going to want to drive down their costs, so they’ll only switch when the price drops below the current floor set by firms like Tycoon and Cargill. But once it does… you’ll be foolish to assume what you’re eating isn’t lab grown if it means a business increasing its profits.
The end result will be people who want lab meat finding themselves prohibited from buying it and people who don’t want lab meat unwittingly consuming it.
There exists a world outside corpo US. Like europe which has better competition in every way. Even ads are better here than in the US.
europe which has better competition in every way
M&A is coming for Europe in a big way as the neoliberal policies of the states seep in through all the cracks. 2025 is gearing up to be a big year for Euro bank consolidation. We’ve already seen a lot of the industrial sector hollowed out of the Southern EU states and consolidated in Germany. Crackups like what happened in Yugoslavia in the 90s and border wars like what we’re seeing with Ukraine/Russia have also immolated domestic industry in a way we haven’t seen since the Years of Lead.
Even ads are better here than in the US.
We’ll see how long that lasts. If the UK is a bellweather, it looks like the Elon-ification of your economy is just a matter of time.
I am extremely unkeen on handing control of all food production to large corporations.
It already exists. We need to be pouring subsidies into it. I would absolutely switch, if it was widely available.
Not only is it better for the environment, but it’s also not loaded with antibiotics or been exposed to fecal matter at the farm.
I’d want to try some exotic synthetic meats you can’t or shouldn’t get anymore like dodo or dolphin. I wouldn’t have the stomach to try it but you can bet there’ll be some market for synthetic long pig. For normal consumption though I don’t eat much meat now so I’d probably just go with whichever if there’s no difference in cost or calories.
