Offal Good

PETA loves meat

April 25, 2008 on 1:38 pm | In Blog | Comments

It seems from a recent article in the NY times that was brought to my attention by serious eats, that PETA wants there to be meat, but only if it’s grown in a petri dish in a lab by doctors to feed the masses by 2012. And the best part is that they are going to pay one million dollars to the person who can produce it in viable commercial amounts.

Now isn’t this how we got into the factory farming problem that they are fighting against now, or is it just a way for them to get the bacon they all truly crave and can’t admit to eating. It is a sad day when we would rather cut down whole rain forests to produce soy beans, and waste precious dollars on fake meat production. I almost feel like we are stepping into a star trek scenario, and the next thing we know, we will only need to push a button and our whole meal will magically appear on a plate produced by scientists in a lab. Personally I would like my food to come from the farm, whether it be animal or vegetable. To me this is just a bullshit hoax for them to draw some needed attention to themselves.

For some interesting information on how fucked this process is listen to

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show on the subject. Its like working with monsanto chemically altered food using artifical flavors and chemicals to make meat, yum I cant wait.
My 2 cents: take the money and spend it on stopping factory farming together with chefs that can help make that happen.

7 Comments

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Just posted on the same topic. I have the same opinion about Tofurky….why would you crave something that tastes like meat if you’re veggie? Fine line, fine line……

Comment by dario — April 25, 2008 #
In defense of Star Trek, the food replicators replicated food based on the patterns stored on the ship’s computer, down to the last molecule. Now, if I could push a button and get a perfect replica of one of your dishes, I’d be almost as happy as if you had cooked it yourself, since it wouldn’t involve driving all the way down I-10 to get it.
But yes, PETA is full of a bunch of wild-eyed crazies. The type of farm you support treats animals ethically. PETA wants to elevate animals to the level of humans. I’m not even going to go there. Though I admit that I might be tempted to save my dog before someone else’s child, but like PETA’s arguments, I realize that’s not a rational response, but an emotional one.

Comment by Egaeus — April 25, 2008 #
I don’t think it is hard to imagine that people who give up animal products on ethical grounds may still desire those flavors and textures which are unique to animal products. I’ve been vegan for three years now and I am still attracted to the scent of rendering bacon or roasting lamb despite my ethical convictions that consuming animal products is unjustifiable.

PETA’s prize may well be a publicity stunt but it also points towards what I believe is the only way to provide animal protein to the growing numbers of people the in the developing world who are beginning to demand it. PETA and the other major animal rights organizations have been trying for decades to get people to abstain from meat. A quick glance at the proportion of vegetarians/vegans in the United States over the same time period will tell you that that campaign has failed and I see no reason that it will succeed in the future. In vitro meat is the only viable alternative because at least in principle it does not require that the consumer sacrifice anything while it removes the living, breathing animal entirely from the equation. Your vision of small scale, “humane” animal husbandry, while a great step forward from factory farming, will not suffice to meet the demands of even current demand levels for meat let alone a future where 9 billion people are living at levels of affluence close to what we now enjoy in the West.

“It is a sad day when we would rather cut down whole rain forests to produce soy beans, and waste precious dollars on fake meat production.”
Perhaps I am mistaking your implication here, but the rain forests are being cut down for soybeans which are then used for animal feed, not to make tofu, nor any other “fake meat” vegetarian product. If we were to adopt in vitro meat on an industrial scale however, there would be no pressure to clear cut/burn the amazon for animal pastures or land to raise soybeans to then feed those animals in feedlots.

I don’t see this ending in a world where we push buttons for our own meals in a pill. Instead, these technologies are allowing for more and more efficient use of our limited resources. Factory farming is a perfect example of this drive towards efficiency. For all the horrors it invites on the animals within it, it is an incredibly efficient model of animal husbandry, and indeed the only one that could feed our insatiable appetite for meat in this country.

While I’d like to believe we could instigate a sea change in the mindset of the general public against the wanton cruelty involved in factory farming, history does not give much reason for hope. Instead, market forces will likely see the adoption of synthetic meat in certain products (ground beef, processed chicken) whether consumers are ready or not. Will it be a better world in 2020 when Chicken McNuggets never required the tortured 90 day existence of a broiler chicken? I’d like to think so.

Comment by Sean — April 26, 2008 #
I believe what Chris is talking about is an old world style of meat consumption. Locally raised and humanely killed solely for sustenance. No waste and using the entire animal as a homage to animal sacrificing itself for or sustained life. Too raise a genetically non-animal for consumption is a step further from the massive slaughter houses we have now. At what point is living tissue no longer an animal which can feel? Can you tell the difference? This thought process by PETA is pretty absurd and verges on Soylent Green. Nature is good.
PS Rainforests are being cut down for soy beans not only for animal feed but E85 ethanol.

Comment by Colin — April 27, 2008 #
“I almost feel like we are stepping into a star trek scenario, and the next thing we know, we will only need to push a button and our whole meal will magically appear on a plate produced by scientists in a lab. Personally I would like my food to come from the farm, whether it be animal or vegetable.”

As opposed to throwing a piece of meat into the cart - a slice of an animal that was slaughtered at four years old and lived sitting in its own shit, being force-fed grains that it would never eat if it had a choice? Chopping up vegetables picked by slaves from the other side of the world? Are you aware of how much involvement “scientists” have on industrial food today? Colin says Nature is Good, but at this point, Nature has nothing to do with it. Call it a farm, call it a factory.

I realize not every individual American household lives like this, and I apologize if you or anybody reading hopes to eat consciously, but you’re pointing the finger at people that are trying to change the way food is produced.

Comment by Alvin — May 14, 2008 #
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