There was an article in our local newspaper saying that someday we wouldn’t even need to raise animals for meat because we could just grow a batch of it in the lab for dinner. There are several problems with this bizarre idea:
- Lab-meat will further concentrate the production of our food into the hands of fewer large corporations which leads to lower quality, higher prices and making our national food supply less secure. If you think a large corporation with a monopoly cares about your well-being then think about security, quality and Microsoft in the same sentence.
- Your local farmers are decentralized, diverse, dispersed sources of quality foods without any monopoly on your budget. This is good. The money stays in your local economy providing jobs to your neighbors. You support your local farmers who keep land in agriculture and forest which is healthier for you and more pleasing to the eye. A large factory is an easy terrorist target by it is hard to target a large number of small farms so we have better national security.
- Lab production of foods will require more energy and petroleum which will make us more dependent on foreign sources of oil and other chemicals. That is one of the last things we need in this world that is increasingly driven by violence over oil.
- Pastured pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, cattle and other livestock efficiently turn sunlight into protein through the intermediate form of grass and other plants on land that is not otherwise suiteable for cropping. Their meat is high density food that is good for us.
- They never get the chemistry right in synthetics so the artificial beef will be missing important micro-ingredients that are necessary for our health. This is much of the point behind the whole organic movement. Think of lab meat as the antithesis of organic - it is the organic Anti-Christ.
- Animals grazed on pasture are high in the good Omega-3 fatty acids and correctly balanced for diet after millions of years of selection. Eating pasture raised, grass fed pork, beef, chicken, lamb and eggs is good for you like eating salmon and sardines but without the toxic PCB’s and mercury.
- Lab grown food will undoubtedly be genetically engineered and patented so that the license holders with minimum competition can extract maximum profits from their guinea pigs, er, I mean consumers. Patenting life is a crime against society. Testing it on the public is a whole new crime.
- Small farmers are raising safe heirloom varieties of plants and animals that have tried and tested for millennia. Anybody can get started with natural varieties and breeds without expensive licensing, patent searches or monopoly market lockouts. Heirlooms are open source seeds that are the heritage of all mankind.
Sure, you can mix up a batch of chemicals for dinner but don’t complain when you mistakenly substitute KCL for NaCL or Se for Si or… The big corporations would love to sell us Wonder Meat™ to eat on our Wonder Bread™ along with genetically engineered, hydroponically grown Wonder Tomatoes™ and Wonder Lettuce™. Higher processing means higher profits for Big-Ag and their friends.
In the end, as in the beginning, heirloom foods are better for us - plain and simple. And that’s no Ludditeism.
Walt,AMEN! I read either the same article or a simular one the other day and it disgusted me,what is happening to peoples ability to reason? Raise your meat in a petri dish? COME ON!! that is braindead and decaying,Dumb!! and they think they are so smart,I believe in seeking knowledge and learning as much as I can,but those people HAD to go to”an instution”to get that stupid,because no one in their right mind would even suggest such a idiotic idea!(and it was’nt a small farmer or homesteader who came up with this “idea”)(college/school is great..(IF YOU LEARN SOMETHING THAT MATTERS!)What do these people do,sit around “brainstorming” until a twister rages through the empty space between their ears,or maybe they have “Worlds Dumbest Idea Contests”I don’t know and I don’t care IF only they would keep them safely locked away!(at the institution)But you and I both know that some nut is currently working on this very thing,and if they succede at it, the Pointy headed crowd will be handing out awards and saying, this is the best thing in the world (because after we passed the NAIS we realized we made a mistake (silly us) and now there is only one cow left on earth and now we can multiply her,and clone her and make “meat” that will grow itself in the package on its way to the store)we are so brilliant!!And about “terrorists” waiting behind every geneticly modified cornstalk to attack our small farms…..(AARRRGGGGHHHH!!)I believe that is, well,that is another RANT! Thank you Walter,I feel better now!:)
Comment LEE — July 30, 2006 @ 8:46 am
Labmeat isn’t a dream. . .it’s a reality and it’s coming to a countertop near you.
It’s an abominantion that we have allowed scientists free run to waste time, money and mental resources to come up with crap like this. Instead of solving the issues which face us at present they wander off in a la-la-land of speculative what-ifs in the hunt to extend our enternment on this earth. Rather than curing disease and making life liveable now they want to grow us new body parts and come up with a chemical solution to a natural problem–aging. Whenever the problems of overpopulation are raised and people bitch about the birth-rate being out of control I always counter, “birth-rate? It’s not the birth-rate, it the death rate–it too low. . . .” One thing you learn on a farm–everything must die, maybe not when you plan it and often at the worst possible time, but life has a finite end. There’s no reason to try to extend it artificially.
Scientifically grown meat will NEVER replace the real thing. In taste, texture, use-ability, nutrition and satisfaction it will always come up short. GM foods are and will be seen to be one of the largest mistakes of recent decades. The only way to extend life and be happy about it (who want to be clinging on to an artificially, drug-enduced, synthesized life for years without happiness?) it to eat good, healthy, natural, organically, sustainably rasied foods. Raising them yourself gives you the added benefit of exercise, fresh air and harmony with nature.
Is it any wonder that none of the scientists wanted to try the proto-meat they grew in a test-tube? There is something abhorant in the very concept and they couldn’t bring themselves to transgress nature themselves. Nevertheless, they’re still going to press on. What idiots. If they used their brains for good instead of corporate profit mongering Global Warming, Hunger–brought on by over-chemical-fertilization and tillage of weak soils–Wars, and cureable diseases could all be brought to an end. Instead we get countertop monkey meat in a petri-dish.
I’m going out in this summer down pour to hug my calf. . . .
Comment Podchef — July 30, 2006 @ 9:28 am
This nais thing is the owrst thing you could have happening to you in your country. They will destroy your independence and make everyone into slaves of the state. It already happened in my country. Don’t let the US be next.
Comment Anders — July 31, 2006 @ 10:46 am