The Beef Industry Is Desperately Fighting Lab-Grown Meats Over Labels

[Deleted]

But that's a false equivalency. Soy milk isn't real milk and is in no way derivative of dairy. Cultured meat on the other hand is animal flesh, just grown from said animal's cells as opposed to slaughtering it and harvesting its meat from there.

That's debatable and enters realms of pedantry - That said as somebody that is very strict on meat purchases I need to know where it's come from without too much difficulty

[Independent voter]

"lab grown meat!"

[Deleted]

Atethecat, you're not that innocent to not understand why there would be a push agaisnt lab-grown meat.

If that proves to be a 100% safe alternative for eating, then that likely spells the end of the industry.

I disagree

[Caerule]

Honestly in the end, even if they can 100% make all meats with identical flavors and as cheap as the real thing, you're still only going to have 50% going total Artificial meat. And you'll always have 10% that distrust fake meat and refuse it altogether.

While the meat industry will survive. Possibly even turn a bigger profit due to becoming a luxury item and having to compete with ethical fake meat leading to better treatment of animals and personal conditions. But before that equilibrium is reached, a lot of people will be losing their jobs, as competition of fake meat chomps a bit part out of the industry's market. The creative and the competitive will survive, but that there are plenty of companies that are going to lose heavily or die due to the competition for customers, is clear. And so I understand why the meat industry is going to put up one hell of a fight.

It'll buy them some time. In the end, it's not going to be a battle they can win. But it's understandable why they do it. That's just humanity.
As for me, it can't get here soon enough.

[Deleted]

It is criminal in lot of ways to keep technological progress hindered yes.

- - - Updated - - -



All industries become changed due to emerging technologies, there will be a point when there will be far more people than jobs exist.

I think we need some proper anti dark ages laws that protect science from, business, politics and religion.

The years we have lost and are losing in stem cells, sex and sexuality and how it links with biology and psychology as well as the shit buried in company's ip store's is just fucking retarded.

Feeling's, people's opinions and self interests shouldn't mean shit to scientific progress.

[Techno-Druid]

Atethecat, you're not that innocent to not understand why there would be a push agaisnt lab-grown meat.

If that proves to be a 100% safe alternative for eating, then that likely spells the end of the industry.

I can understand/infer that, but I'm confused as to why they seem to lack any ambition to adopt the tech. Chicken producers like Tyson are already starting to adapt to cultured chicken meat.

[P for Pancetta]

But that's a false equivalency. Soy milk isn't real milk and is in no way derivative of dairy. Cultured meat on the other hand is animal flesh, just grown from said animal's cells as opposed to slaughtering it and harvesting its meat from there.

so far "cultured meat" has never been like real meat because it's not as complex as actual meat, it doesn't have the texture nor fat which are important components and give the meat it's taste. The grown meat that will most likely hit the shelves first is the kind that can only be used as minced meat featuring many additives. I do not think it's odd for people who make a certain product to be able to label it as such without other people making a different product to label it as the same product. However I think cultured meat should be an option for consumers and it should be called cultured meat.

[Deleted]

As noble as lab-grown meat is I can't see it becoming mainstream. I am also dubious of the taste so that's another very important factor. Until then customers will not want to feel hoodwinked. It has to be 100% clear

People have said the same stupid thing about 80-90%(bullshit procent ofc) that we have now. "Veganism is just a fad" Currently we have more vegan alternatives than ever. Or "Smartphones is just a niche" and the world is a few years later run by them.

Lab grown meat is cheaper, more sustainable, more ecological and more practical. It will be a thing, and it will dominate the market. Not enough people truly care, and those that do will die out. At the end of the day, price matters more than feelings and taste, it only has to be close enough.

- - - Updated - - -

The problem with the labeling in cases like this goes back to the same problem as GMO products. The labeling is being used as a scare tactic to push people into buying products with no real additional benefit at elevated prices.

Considering the amount of ignorance regarding GMOs, I can only imagine the backlash for cultured meats and the advertising that will come to scare people away entirely from a technology that we really need to get into.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - Agent Kay, Men in Black

I mean fear of GMO's is largely contained to the US (thankfully), and I enjoy the cheaper prices. I background check most food I eat, mostly out of curiosity and the ammount of bullshit that lies behind some organic/ecological sortiments is just hilarious.

[Nihilist74]

Yah and the oil companies do a pretty good job of it!

[Deleted]

I dont know, I hear the impossible burger is pretty close to meat, so close that 10 out of 10 people who ate it didnt know it wasnt meat.

I would, as would any celiac allergic person :P The texture of gluten is very easily recognized if you grew up avoiding it haha

Unless they decided to remove gluten from it, then I probably wouldnt be able to tell anymore.

[Nihilist74]

It is just a transitional period, it is just like the oil companies trying to keep their strangle hold on the world economy.

Yah and the oil companies do a pretty good job of it! Keeping the strangle hold on it that is.

[Deleted]

wiki: flesh from an animal

Sounds fair to restrict the label.
Just like soy drinks can't be labeled "milk", and orange-flavored water is not "juice" in consumer-favorable markets.

... It's the same meat. A soy drink isnt based on milk, its a completely different thing, as is orange juice vs flavored water.

In vitro-meat is genetically the same as normal meat and contains all the same stuff it does, as such it can at most be labeled as "grown" "cultured" vs "free-range" "Butchered"

[Medusa Cascade]

I'm looking forward to lab grown human meat

[Claymore]

Personally, I think these "lab-grown meats" are absolutely frightening. We have precisely zero idea what is being created here, or how it will impact the human body. They may *tell* us that "it's exactly the same as animal meat", but really think about what a stretch that is. We can't even make diet soda that tastes like regular fucking soda, neither of which are organic.

You think High Fructose Corn Syrup is "exactly the same" as sugar?

Hell, talk to anyone in the health industry. You would be shocked how much humanity is still just "winging it", things we still don't quite understand. And you want to introduce genetically-spliced "meat" that was "grown" in a lab to that equation? *Seriously*?!?

This shit is exactly how man-made contagions are born.

[Zyky]

Food already generally isn't required to be labelled any particular way, generally. You don't see chicken labelled as "Cage grown". You see it labelled as "Free range", if it is. Positive labelling, not negative.

So you'd see "real meat!" then you wouldn't buy any that don't have that sticker on it.

[Dispraise]

If you can perfectly recreate the taste and nutritional content of a juicy steak in a lab, great. Fantastic. All the power to you.

I'm still going to insist that that information should be readily available to consumers, and fuck anyone who says people aren't entitled to know what's in their own damn food.

[Techno-Druid]

Personally, I think these "lab-grown meats" are absolutely frightening. We have precisely zero idea what is being created here, or how it will impact the human body. They may *tell* us that "it's exactly the same as animal meat", but really think about what a stretch that is. We can't even make diet soda that tastes like regular fucking soda, neither of which are organic.

We know exactly what we're creating here. We're literally just growing flesh from muscle and fat cells from an animal we already eat.

[Deleted]

But that's a false equivalency. Soy milk isn't real milk and is in no way derivative of dairy. Cultured meat on the other hand is animal flesh, just grown from said animal's cells as opposed to slaughtering it and harvesting its meat from there.

... It's the same meat. A soy drink isnt based on milk, its a completely different thing, as is orange juice vs flavored water.

In vitro-meat is genetically the same as normal meat and contains all the same stuff it does, as such it can at most be labeled as "grown" "cultured" vs "free-range" "Butchered"

I included soy drinks because they're a more obvious illustration of the point.
And included "orange flavored water", because orange drinks from concentrate are a more accurate comparison, given that these drinks do use "real" oranges in the process (they essentially take the water out for storage, and mix water later for distribution). The final product isn't juiced from an orange, just like the final product of lab meat isn't the flesh of an animal: they were at some point, and then they underwent some other process.

These labels not only signify if they are from the "real thing", but also their manufacturing process. And knowing if this flesh was grown on an animal or on lab is just that: how it was manufactured. And, in the case, of meats, sometimes they label specific methods of slaughtering (stuff like halal). It's a nice piece of information to have.
I think it's only fair because that's the standard here. They not only label manufacturing, but also certain common names are exclusive to certain regions. Consumers want to know the where how and when of everything.

[Shadowferal]

I will never eat anything that was never alive before hand.

[Uncle]

The funny thing here is the world as LARGELY enough food to feed EVERY human being in the world, the people who are saying otherwise with their "with the pop increase, we will not have enough food" blablabla, it's a blatant mistake: today, we can produce enough food to feed at least 10 billions human being. The sum of USA's wasted food and water would be sufficient to nourrish the whole Africa continent, same for Europe.
Increasing our food production by every mean, including the most unhealthy ones is clearly not the answer, because the only matter now is the fact we are WASTING unimaginable amounts of food EVERY day, this IS the thing we must fix: we have food, we simply don't make good use of it.