this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Here's the thing, as I see it. Meat eaters don't genuinely care about the ethics of meat. They give no shits about factory farming. So lab grown meat won't be popular until it becomes significantly cheaper than standard factory farming. And even then conservatives will insist on eating real meat for ideological reasons, just like they do today.
(I mean, look at the impossible burgers. They were damn near identical to ground beef, and at a similar price point. But similar wasn't good enough - they didn't get it cheaper than actual ground beef so it ended up just a brief fad.)
And lab grown meat doesn't have the short supply chain of a live animal in a field. Even factory farming at its most factoriest is pretty straightforward - grow corn, feed it to pigs in tiny cages, pump them full of antibiotics, repeat. Lab grown meat doesn't have the cruelty factor but the complexity of its supply chain and the amount of artificial inputs it requires, not only make it antithetical to solarpunk philosophy in a different way, but make it highly unlikely it'll ever be competitive price-wise.
What we need is a pre-industrial-revolution attitude towards food. Our calories should be primarily vegetarian and vegan, grown naturally from the soil. Food shouldn't be an industrial product. And there's nothing more industrial than lab-grown meat.
Where is impossible just a fad? I feel it's pretty much impossible (lol) to find a black bean or other veggie burger in a restaurant now, while everywhere (even burger king) has impossible or beyond. But this is in Berkeley so it's highly likely I'm just in a bubble.
In the developing world, impossible burgers & beyond meat are nowhere to be found. I only know of a single restaraunt in my entire country that sells a beyond meat burger (at 4x the price of a normal beef burger).
Ahh fair enough. I actually saw a good amount in Bengaluru last time I was there, but India is likely an outlier with a specific reason they have pursued beef alternatives. But thinking elsewhere I've been somewhat recently (e.g. central america) I think you are right