The Flesh Factory of the Future

[CavySpirit]

The Flesh Factory of the Future[font=Arial]
By Will Peavy - wpeavy@mail.usf.edu


On December 28, 2004, the U.S. government granted an inventor a patent for, “producing tissue engineered meat for consumption.� More specifically, the patent was issued for the process of growing, in a factory, non-human animal muscles that are intended to be eaten by human animals. The muscles grown through this form of technology would be independent of any sort of nervous system or conscious being; and thus no animal, in the current sense of the word, would need to be grown or slaughtered in order to produce the meat.

While no clear plan to implement this technology on a wide scale is mentioned in the patent, it is apparent that there is a strong profit motive to bringing this form of meat to the mass market as quickly as possible. Factory farmers, whose bottom line is to produce flesh in the most efficient manner possible in order to maximize profits, have a clear motive to embrace this technology. This means that, potentially, the process of creating tissue engineered meat created from non-sentient flesh could replace the process of imprisoning and slaughtering billions of sentient animals per year for their flesh.

I imagine there would be a good deal of opposition to this technology from several groups, most notably in the form of religious objections, and from the grain producers who would no longer be needed by the flesh producers. However, as a vegan who is concerned with the health and well-being of the Earth, humans, and other animals – I support this technology. While animal activists have been advocating veganism for years, we have seen the number of animals that go through the factory farming system increase. Yet, this technology may be able to provide a product that can satiate the desires of the average animal flesh consumer (because of the lack of public outrage towards factory farming and because of the prevalence of fast food chains, it is apparent that the average consumer holds little interest in how his or her food is produced) without sentencing billions of sentient animals to confinement and cruelty. Whereas factory farms cause a massive amount of environmental pollution in the form of animal urine and feces, tissue engineered meat holds the promise of producing consumable animal flesh without creating animal excrement. And while human rights groups point to the slaughter industry as one of the absolute worst industries in terms of labor abuse, with this new form of technology there would be need for the carcass slicing of the slaughterhouse.

Upon first glance the idea of tissue engineered meat may not be a pretty one, but if it were to become the de facto standard of meat production, it appears that this technology would put an end to many of the ills associated with the modern factory farm.

The full text of the patent can be seen at
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=vein.INZZ .&OS=IN/vein&RS=IN/vein
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reprinted from:

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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com

Animal Rights Online

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/

[font=Arial]-=Animal Rights Online=-

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[2boar1sow]

Thats cool. I would guess that the catholic church wouldn't havea problem with it, but you never know. They seem to be skilled at making some sort of reason not to be in favor of many new seemingly wonderous products of science. I'm interested to see what other people have to say.

[Teria]

Interesting. While reading, I found myself thinking: "Hey, but this wouldn't be, like, real!" - before I noticed what exactly I was thinking there. On second thought, I find this to be a very good idea. We eat so much artificial food that artificial meat won't be the worst invention they made.

[mncavylover]

Really interesting... although I presume the meat would still have the same health risks (maybe slightly lower, but fats and cholesterol would be the same), I think this would be a tremendous step in a good direction.

[sofiemuffins]

Sounds Nasty. However if it saves Animals, I'll support it. I just wont eat it =(

[John4216]

This sounds wonderful...If this can actually be accomplished it could help to eliminate starvation for one thing but the other ramifications of this are huge. The impact it would have on crops that are grown to feed animals would be huge but then those crops could be turned into growing food for people and help to end starvation around the world also.

[critterlover]

It sounds kind of awful to me. I mean, we eat enough artificially produced food as it is. I'd be afraid that 10 years down the road, they find out that the artifical meat causes cancer or something.

If we really want to encourage people to eat less meat, why not come up with some special tax to make meat more expensive, like with cigarettes? I know many people who are vegetarian because they are on a strict budget. I really wish fruit and vegetables (especially organic) were cheaper, I know people who avoid fresh produce just because they think it's too expensive.

[tardigrade]

If people are willing to eat the stuff...

[Sparky]

its funny how you say that it could be carcinogenic, because almost everything these days is. seriously pick any product and google it as "______ causes cancer" something will come up

[Slap Maxwell]

Originally Posted by 2boar1sow

Thats cool. I would guess that the catholic church wouldn't havea problem with it, but you never know. They seem to be skilled at making some sort of reason not to be in favor of many new seemingly wonderous products of science. I'm interested to see what other people have to say.

It's those upsurd Fundamentalists who would have the problems with it.

[critterlover]

it could be carcinogenic, because almost everything these days is.

You're right. It's shocking what's in our food. The middle aisles of the grocery store are filled with stuff that will make you sick. That's why in my family we avoid processed foods as much as possible and buy our vegetables organic if we can.