Can humanity keep on eating meat without lifelong suffering and torture of animals? ecoTrain QOTW

If you eat meat, then congratulations for reading this post! Many people choose to ignore things that threaten something we want or need. The desire to eat meat is one of our most primal urges, and a very large proportion of people in the world require meat with every meal to feel satisfied. So if you eat meat and can't imagine life without it, but also feel bad for the state of the meat industry worldwide then please do read on!

The mistreatment of animals on a mass scale is one of the most heartbreaking aspects of meat eating by an ever increasing global population. It is one thing to end an animals life when that animal has lived a normal life and satisfied it's own desires as a conscious and sentient being. It is quite another thing to ignore every aspect of humane and ethical treatment in order to produce enough meat, and at low enough cost, to satisfy demand. The current paradigm is that, not only is the treatment of animals becoming worse, but the quality of the meat itself is also deteriorating due to the use of chemicals, hormones, antibiotics and hygiene issues that pervade any large scale meat farming operation.

There isn't really much to debate about whether the current trends are sustainable or not. In order to feed a growing population, we need vast amounts of land and water. Eating meat is one of the most inefficient ways to feed ourselves when you take into account the amount of land, water, and resources needed to feed and house livestock. Whilst the vegetarian and vegan movement is becoming more popular, it is fair to say that most of the world is not ready to give up meat. So is there a way that we can keep eating without the lifelong suffering and torture of sentient beings like a cow, a horse, a pig, or even a fish?

Producing 1kg of ground beef isn’t easy. It requires 100kg of hay, 4kg of grain, 100,000L of water (including grain/hay requirements). Meanwhile the meat industry contributes to 18% of greenhouse gas emissions – most notably the toxic gas methane.

The human population is expected to hit 9.5 billion by 2060, which will cause the market in meat to double by the middle of the century.

This is a question that many forward thinkers have been asking, and there has been a lot of activity recently to try to address this issue. Our scientists have been busy trying several approaches that can offer a very good alternative to meat derived directly from animals. Biology is a fascinating field, and scientists have come a long way in developing lab based tissue cultures that can grow and multiply like cells do in the body. With just a minute sample of cells that are taken from a donor animal without any harm to that animal, scientists are now able to grow and produce actual meat tissue that is very comparable to the real thing. Without a brain, cultured meat can indeed be thought of as almost plantlike. If you look under a microscope, you see the same cell structures as you would meat from an animal.

There have been several news articles about this, and most focus on taste (of course!). These lab based meat products are still in development and it is fair to say that they do not provide the same great taste that real meat gives, but that work is ongoing, and improving. There is now enough backing and support behind this that we are already starting to see the potential for these to be sold as viable alternatives to meat products.

SOURCE

Lab-grown meat has become a viable option to improve the environmental impact of meat consumption around the world. In just a few years lab-grown meat has become more accessible, mainly due to the increased interest and research—dropping from $325,000 for a lab-grown meat burger to only $11.36 in just two years

This isn't the only approach being researched. Scientists are also learning how to make very convincing meat alternatives grown from ingredients like fungus, seaweed and even herbs. The mix of these constituents can even mimic the blood red and iron rich taste of meat. A company called Beyond Meat sells a veggie burger that looks, cooks and taste like real meat. Called Beyond Burger, this plant-based burger uses beet juice to 'bleed' and is selling at a Whole Foods. These approaches are probably the best solution to yield products with much higher nutritional value, but may not satisfy a staunch carnivore.

Demand for meat, and fish, is only going one way. The question is, which product can satisfy the craving of the population for meat. At the moment it’s there and it’s increasing. This is a sentiment the Chinese government has got behind, announcing a $300m investment in cultured meat produced in Israel. The US may be among the world’s most carnivorous nations, but as China’s economy swells, the planet’s most populous country is catching up.

As for the future of lab-grown meat, Richard Branson remains confident that the future of sustainable meat is bright. “I believe that in 30 years or so we will no longer need to kill any animals and that all meat will either be clean or plant-based, taste the same, and also be much healthier for everyone,” he shared. “It’s exciting to see these products and industries take flight. They are a great example of how business is working to address the world’s biggest challenges.”

There are so many other things I could have spoken about that may help to gives this question a big yes. One example is to reduce meat eating. If we learned to eat half of our meals without needing meat, this would bring about a massive reduction in demand. There are some countries where this is just normal, such as India. For many Indians, eating meat is a luxury and something that is eaten just once or twice a week. When that happens you can be sure they enjoy it to its maximum! I have, however, chosen not to focus on trying to change people and their habits, since i don't think that is a pragmatic solution.

Also, I think there will always be a role for family farms to play in feeding rural areas, but family farms can only produce a tiny fraction of the world’s demand for meat. So if, like me, you are interested in a future of food tech that promotes real sustainability and animal justice, I hope you'll join the conversation and leave a comment!

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SOURCES

• http://foundry.bio/lab-grown-meat/
• https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-meat-production-2504409733.html
• https://thebossmagazine.com/lab-grown-meat/
• https://futurism.com/tackling-challenge-texture-lab-grown-meat/
• https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/20/lab-grown-meat-fish-feed-the-world-frankenmeat-startups

 

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