Comments on: Vegan bullock’s muscle http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2007/08/15/vegan-bullocks-muscle/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:04:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Gary http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2007/08/15/vegan-bullocks-muscle/#comment-6888 Gary Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:09:31 +0000 http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2007/08/15/vegan-bullocks-muscle/#comment-6888 I think you and Sean both have a point. Lab meat is tomorrow but meat analogs are today. And a lot are pretty good, and liked by most meat-eaters (i.e., pre-vegans) once they get past their irrational fears. And my experience is that most meat-eaters don't know about them (possibly because they've never looked). So there's a lot of potential here. In a follow-up conversation I had with AWI, I asked them: As long as you're trying to move meat-eaters from Smithfield to Niman (and I acknowledged that the latter is less cruel than the former, though still cruel and still wrong), why not also let them know about products like SmartLife Smart BBQ and GardenBurger Riblets, which do a very impressive job of imitating pork, but without killing animals (or castrating them sans painkillers and so forth)? I mean, there's your truly "humane meat." They didn't really have an answer. It's interesting that some of the meat analogs - veggie bologna, for example - are reproducing a taste and texture that's very artificial to begin with. I think you and Sean both have a point. Lab meat is tomorrow but meat analogs are today. And a lot are pretty good, and liked by most meat-eaters (i.e., pre-vegans) once they get past their irrational fears. And my experience is that most meat-eaters don’t know about them (possibly because they’ve never looked). So there’s a lot of potential here.

In a follow-up conversation I had with AWI, I asked them: As long as you’re trying to move meat-eaters from Smithfield to Niman (and I acknowledged that the latter is less cruel than the former, though still cruel and still wrong), why not also let them know about products like SmartLife Smart BBQ and GardenBurger Riblets, which do a very impressive job of imitating pork, but without killing animals (or castrating them sans painkillers and so forth)? I mean, there’s your truly “humane meat.” They didn’t really have an answer.

It’s interesting that some of the meat analogs - veggie bologna, for example - are reproducing a taste and texture that’s very artificial to begin with.

]]> By: Sean http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2007/08/15/vegan-bullocks-muscle/#comment-6639 Sean Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:09:30 +0000 http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2007/08/15/vegan-bullocks-muscle/#comment-6639 The more interesting question for me is not availability of meat analogs, but the prospect of real meat, designed by scientists, and produced in factories sans animals. I forsee factory meat, grown from animal stem cells and cultured in labs, as the dominant protein source for most people in the 21st century. When it arrives, first as ground meat and later as more recognizable cuts of flesh, consumers won't have any excuse to continue eating the flesh of real animals; they can have their humane steak and eat it too. So what should the movement's position be when the time inevitably comes for consumers to either accept this new means of meat production or reject it as a bastardization of "traditional" animal husbandry practices? Should we be advocating a vegan lifestyle when consumers could continue to eat meat without the involvement of animals or at the very least exploitation on anywhere near the scale we have today? I don't see a reasonable objection to these products except out of personal preference; and that is no basis for a movement. When the "meat" and "milk" comes, it will be endgame for the animal rights movement as we know it today. I only hope that in the waning years, we can finally stamp out animal husbandry for good. The more interesting question for me is not availability of meat analogs, but the prospect of real meat, designed by scientists, and produced in factories sans animals. I forsee factory meat, grown from animal stem cells and cultured in labs, as the dominant protein source for most people in the 21st century. When it arrives, first as ground meat and later as more recognizable cuts of flesh, consumers won’t have any excuse to continue eating the flesh of real animals; they can have their humane steak and eat it too.

So what should the movement’s position be when the time inevitably comes for consumers to either accept this new means of meat production or reject it as a bastardization of “traditional” animal husbandry practices? Should we be advocating a vegan lifestyle when consumers could continue to eat meat without the involvement of animals or at the very least exploitation on anywhere near the scale we have today? I don’t see a reasonable objection to these products except out of personal preference; and that is no basis for a movement. When the “meat” and “milk” comes, it will be endgame for the animal rights movement as we know it today. I only hope that in the waning years, we can finally stamp out animal husbandry for good.

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