As a thinking experiment, let us consider that on the 1st of January of 2025 it is announced that an advance making possible growing any kind of animal tissue in laboratory conditions as been achieved and that it is possible to scale it in order to achieve industrial grade production level.

There is no limit on which animal tissues can be grown, so, any species is achieveable, only being needed a small cell sample from an animal to start production, and the cultivated tissues are safe for consumption.

There won’t be any perceiveable price change to the end consummer, as the growing is a complex and labour intensive process, requiring specialized equipments and personnel.

Would you change to this new diet option?

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    7 hours ago

    The only thing I’d wait for is for the process to be refined enough to be more eco friendly than just eating real meat. I’d do it, but until there’s proof of it being more sustainable and won’t tank my blood thin/thickness levels (blood thinners sometimes suck), I would be down to try it at the very least.

    Though I would receive resistance in changing my diet until either my dad changes his eating habits or I move out on my own because my dad absolutely refuses things like plant based meats, so I know he’d most likely resist lab grown meat as well. It’s also hard for my mom and I to switch to a healthier dinner diet since both my dad and older brother wouldn’t dare change their diets to something like a Mediterranean or some other healthier because they can be picky eaters (especially my older brother).

  • jet@hackertalks.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    9 hours ago

    I would be wildly optimistic, but very cautious.

    I’d want to see multi-year randomized control trials comparing the bioavailability of not only protein, but also vitamins and minerals from the synthetic meat and liver, to natural meat and liver.

    Assuming the RCTs show no issues, then I would happily move over.

    Modern meat products are on a spectrum as well, it’s not just having the meat, it’s what the meat ate before it became me that’s important. Grass-fed, versus grain fed for beef. Insect, and protein for chickens, grain fed for chickens etc. antibiotics, hormones being supplemented into the feed to improve yields.

    One massive problem the industry globally suffers from is overpromising. Just like multivitamins, which are very poorly bioavailable, and mostly peed out, they promise a lot but don’t deliver much.

    Factors I would look for:

    • can somebody sustain life eating only the synthetic meat for multiple years?
    • oxidative stress, and oxidation in the synthetic food?
    • The temptation to engineer sugar, and carbohydrates, directly into the meat to increase sales yields.

    Green sustainability:

    • can the synthetic meat be produced globally?
    • Will poor farmers in the middle of nowhere be improved or hurt by this? Will they have access to the synthetic meat?
    • in the event global logistics fail, like an a war, will moving over to synthetic meat severely hurt critical infrastructure and ability to feed populations?
  • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    8 hours ago

    We don’t eat red meat at all, so I would probably try it out fairly quickly. Actually we don’t eat chicken or the like either, only fish, which is something I miss a bit more now and then. We have a dried product called NoChicken that is actually pretty good, so that’d probably be sufficient for me to wait a bit to see how it goes long term (I.e is it truly safe to consume).

    But every now and then, I miss game. Moose and wood grouse mainly. That’d probably hook me enough to try it quickly.

  • Birdie@thelemmy.club
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    13 hours ago

    I’ll move to it in a second. Protein with no need to slaughter animals would be so fantastic for the animals, the earth, and people.

  • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    13 hours ago

    If it were indistinguishable from other meat sources, and priced similarly (preferably less!), then of course. I expect it will take a very long time to get to that point, though.

  • slowroll@r.nf
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    13 hours ago

    still waiting for the mass to consume it and see what happen, also waiting for the price too

  • yuri@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    18 hours ago

    once it’s affordable, yeah almost immediately i reckon. i already go for plant based meats whenever i can find them for a reasonable price!

  • Openopenopenopen@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    In a heartbeat. Although I’d prefer meat alternatives to lab grown meat. Like impossible burgers.

    I don’t eat a ton of meat, and I’d like to eat even less. this option would help me feel like I’m not making animals suffer just so I can survive.

    • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      20 hours ago

      Impossible burgers are extremely unhealthy, full of processed flours and additives. It’s best to not eat any “meat” at all, and instead eat whole vegan foods, than eat these things. Lab grown meat, if it’s like real meat, is much more desirable health-wise.

    • fixmycode@feddit.cl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      15 hours ago

      there’s a not so small possibility that development of meat growing tech and patent expression will give us a niche market of not-available-before-for-ethical-reasons meats, like white rhinoceros burgers, cat and dog steaks, human fillets.

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    19 hours ago

    protein isn’t the issue, it’s all the bio-available vitamins and healthy fats that have already been converted.

    if it’s a 1 for 1 replacement, depending on how we deal with the massive and now useless animal populations, I would totally switch.