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.
I also think that there is some much potential in the dishes we eat. Western Cousine is mostly structured around a protein and side dishes but there is so much more out there. We could have a much healthier, more diverse and interesting diet that is basically better in every regard and doesn’t require highly processed plant proteins to work. But this requires a certain amount of dedication and resources on the cooking side of things. We should start taking proper food for the population more serious as a national health concern and provide a easy way to get cheap and healthy food for everyone. This is also vital because of how the society changed, more single households and less of the traditional family. In my naive mind I never understood why food is not something like health care, water services, sewage or what ever. Everyone needs it to survive. This would be better for health (care systems), the planet and local food independence. Instead we let huge food companies sell us more sawdust per candy bar every year and exploit workers in the south.