Is lab-grown meat vegan? Lab-grown meat uses animal cells (dead or alive) which is the same as animal flesh, just that it was not "killed" while growing up. The argument that it is vegan arose that it does not require any type of human interference, except the providing of a nutritious substance in which the cells can actually grow (similar to bacteria).
While lab-grown meat reduced a significant amount of environmental impact, it does not deny the element of animal presence in the meat.
History of Lab-Grown Meat
In August 2013, BBC reported a press conference of the world's first laboratory-grown burger tasted by two food critics. The Dutch scientists shared the meat cost $200,000 and stem cells were taken from a dead animal. The critics found the $200,000 meat feeling like meat, except for the lack of fat.
Austrian food researcher Ms. Ruetzler said: "I was expecting the texture to be softer... there is quite some intense taste; it's close to meat, but it's not that juicy. The consistency is perfect, but I miss salt and pepper."
The press conference stated the purpose of the exercise was to show lab meat can be created, and the flavor could be enhanced later.
Laboratory grown meat may sometimes seem an actual nightmare, as well as it is maybe also the proper solution towards animal rights and also environmental concerns of all those organizations that are trying to preserve our beloved world and also regarding the fact of the meeting.
After the first lab-grown burger was developed by the scientists in 2013 and also several other types of existing lab-grown meat introduced, it was expected the actual price of this type of meat will go down and become readily available at the supermarkets.
Various research that is currently an ongoing process that is developing lab-grown meat or so it is called the cultured meat has been going for quite some years now over the market. Memphis Meats and Mosa Meat, an offshoot of Post’s lab, hope to have competitively priced products by 2020.
A person who actually loves eating meat would prefer animal grown meat over the lab-grown version, and also lab-grown meat is slightly a misleading name as in the future it is more likely to be produced in a factory just like animal grown meat and also the only grown in laboratories while it is being developed.
First of all, let's get towards some very necessary points of lab-grown meat
What is Lab-Grown Meat Made Of
Growing meat starts with a few ‘satellite’ cells obtained from muscle from a live animal. These stem cells turn into the different cells found in the muscle when fed with nutrients.
The cells are grown in strips using a scaffold that flooded with nutrients to mechanically stretches them, ‘exercising’ the muscle cells to increase their size and protein content. The resulting tissue can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as boneless processed meat.
Health Impact of Lab-grown Meat
The biggest advantages of lab-grown meat are health-related. In a time where the public opinion is basically suggesting that many people believe lab-grown meat is actually healthy.
However, this is not true when the flavor is enhanced with salts, fats to mimic actual meat. For example, the plant-based (vegetarian but not lab-grown) Impossible meat patty and Beyond Meat patty are actually more unhealthy than the meat itself due to the extra flavoring.
Lab-Grown Meat might be "more" Vegan
Vegan people are basically vegan for two basic reasons:
- They actually don’t like the meat or products from animals
- They are against the brutality or the slaughtering animal
Basically, a vegan is against the brutality or the slaughtering process of the animals.
The lab-grown meat is like taking a seed from a tree and then grow it in the proper environment and have the same properties. There is no need to cut the tree from one place and distribute it among the people.
But if a person is really vegan just because he doesn’t like meat, there is nothing that actually makes him or her conviction to have this type of artificial meat that is not actually taken from the animal body directly.
Perpetuating animal use and suffering
Cows, pigs, and chickens could be easily grown and there is not going to be any need for farm animals that would have to be killed in order to process such type of meat.
The use of animals acting as a seed to develop new types of meat would still continue.
The agriculture industry with thousands of years of traditional animal breeding will find reasons to stop this lab-grown meat unless they have the technology.
Without proven health benefits and support that it is 100% cruelty-free, the purchasing of such products would not grow and will not stop animals from suffering on the farm yet.
Other Developments: Future Lab-Grown Milk and 3D-Printed Meat
A Singapore company used similar technology to develop lab-grown milk. The reasons not to alternative milk such as almond milk are that the function and taste of milk differ from "nuts" milk. It looks like the lab-grown industry won't stop.
An Israeli company, Redefine Meat, recently printed plant-based steaks too. Although it isn't lab-grown, it is also produced to compete in the meat substitute market.
Israeli start-up Redefine Meat plans to launch 3D printers to produce plant-based steaks, mimicking real beef, in a bid to win a slice of the fast-growing alternative meat market pic.twitter.com/tTWI7DM5en
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2020