Why the right is rushing to ban lab grown meat that could save tens of billions of animals every year

Unlike plant-based meat substitutes like the Impossible Burger, lab-grown meat consists of actual animal tissue, but made without slaughtering animals. Instead, scientists take a sample of animal cells and feed them amino acids, salts, vitamins, and other nutrients until they grow into edible beef, pork, or poultry.

This technology isn’t yet commercially viable. You can’t buy cellular meat at a grocery store. And if you could, a serving might cost you the bulk of your savings.

Nevertheless, self-styled champions of free enterprise in Nebraska, Montana, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Wyoming have all sought to stymy the manufacture and sale of cellular meat within their borders.

Related on the SLP

Impossible Burger blowback: Will irrational fears of biotechnology block introduction of sustainable foods? Meat wars: Sourcing from animals may not be what distinguishes meat from ‘meat alternatives’

Viewpoint: Dubious environmental fears: Why the AI buildout is critical to America’s ecological future

Vitamin D, omega-3 fish oil and glucosamine supplements could cause brain damage 

Child-monitoring apps: When the cure is worse than the harm—and how the technology could be tweaked

…

Lab-grown meat faces many scientific and economic hurdles to viability. But it is nevertheless our best hope for eliminating torture from our food system. And the right’s push for prohibiting the technology is fueled by little more than paranoia, greed, and cultural grievance.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.