FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Andy on May 08, 2008, 02:38:49 PM
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we should really have a board for discussion of dietary stuff.
I don't remember where I heard the discussion, but I thought it was interesting. It's probably already been discussed here, but:
With the regenerative tissue work that is going on, growing ears on the back of rats and whatnot, would you vegans eat meat that was grown from the cells of an animal, assuming that there was a humane way to harvest the cells and the food product was proven safe?
It's probably a twofold question: would it solve your aversion to the cruelty aspect of eating meat and (for you long termers)do you think that your pallate would allow it or would you be grossed out?
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if there were a way to "make" meat that didn't harm animals in any way (like the way you've described), then HELL YES.
i didn't stop eating meat because i didn't like the taste of meat.
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I'm not a vegan or even a full-fledged vegetarian, but NO. That shit has no interest for me. I'd much rather eat a lot less meat or none at all. Lab-grown meat? Eccch.
My dietary choices are based on environmentalism and serious misgivings about factory farming. The answer for me is to buy what little meat I eat from trustworthy, small-scale farmers.
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same here.
i love meat, and dare i say, i miss it- but i became vegetarian to get healthy. i dont drink soda, or juice from concentrate, fast food, blah blah blah...i'd rather eat a cow raised on pure feed, no hormones, et al. before i ate lab meat. egh, so weird.
lab meat=creepopedia
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Off-topic, but my own mention of small-scale farmers above reminded me: today's the first day for this season's weekly veggie box! I'm picking it up in about an hour. Hoo boy, I'm glad to be getting good vegetables again...
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today's the first day for this season's weekly veggie box! I'm picking it up in about an hour. Hoo boy, I'm glad to be getting good vegetables again...
that's so awesome. i get a weekly produce box year-round and i was so happy when it stopped being potatoes, beets, onions, kale, and carrots every week. not that i don't love all of those but after 4 months of nothing but...
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lab meat=creepopedia
Yes!
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I'd sooner eat vegi-squid.
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I'm not a vegan or even a full-fledged vegetarian, but NO. That shit has no interest for me. I'd much rather eat a lot less meat or none at all. Lab-grown meat? Eccch.
My dietary choices are based on environmentalism and serious misgivings about factory farming. The answer for me is to buy what little meat I eat from trustworthy, small-scale farmers.
Me too! The way meat is raised is disgusting. We don't need to eat very much of it anyway.
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I used some of the Boca Italian (soy-based) sausages instead of regular pork sausages in the spinach tortellini dish I cooked for me and my girlfriend for dinner last night, and it was good and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. I eat meat and seafood and don't have any plans of stopping outright, but as I've gotten older I've found that there are fewer and fewer meat products that I can tolerate, and I've found the vegetarian alternatives to add some good balance to how I feel from what I eat. I'm done with fast food, and cold cuts make me feel like garbage, so I've stopped eating them. When I do eat meat I tend to stick to clean stuff I'm preparing on my own or reputable, quality restaurants (which, in terms of the latter, translates as follows: a burger from R.F. O'Sullivan's in Cambridge = quality; a dodgy chicken sandwich from my employer's kitchen = I am never making that mistake again).
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lab meat=creepopedia
that's for sure.
even though i liked the taste of meat, it has stopped being an object of desire for me. i think the mistake a lot of vegetarians make is letting meat become this huge desirable thing hanging over you. I didn't want to give up meat and dairy for a long time because i made the taste and luxury become a huge weight on my shoulders, but the more i ate it with a guilty conscience, the less pleasure i gained from actually consuming it. Now, I don't think I could eat meat even if it didn't cause an animal harm (besides the fact lab meat seems creepy and gross)
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I don't know about my fellow vegans but I don't really have much of a problem with eating clams, scallops, or mussels. They're basically a step above vegetables (no brain or central nervous system.) Yet I don't eat them because, well, they're gross. I would have the same policy with humanely grown "lab meat."
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I don't know about my fellow vegans but I don't really have much of a problem with eating clams, scallops, or mussels. They're basically a step above vegetables (no brain or central nervous system.) Yet I don't eat them because, well, they're gross. I would have the same policy with humanely grown "lab meat."
I can agree with you about clams and shit. I don't eat that kind of stuff simply because it doesn't fit into how I define being vegan and yeah, gross.
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Mmmm, clams, scallops, and mussels.
(Sorry.)
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this is as appropriate a thread as any to share this article.
Good article from a quality magazine...I sez
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/05/carnivores_like_us.php?page=2
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I would eat lab-grown whatever, in principle. Life itself is no more disgusting than science. When you think about it, all life is disgusting. Life is the source of disgusting-ness. Even trees. But there's nothing disgusting on the moon!
I'm only an ethical vegetarian, though. I would have no problem eating humanely-raised animals that got to live what should be the "typical" life of that animal, if I could be bothered to pay the absurd sums and do the research necessary. I think it is important to remember that domesticated species evolved into the niche of domestication. It wasn't something we did to them; it was a symbiotic co-evolution. (Of course, this doesn't matter to the individual animal. As the writers on evolution like to point out, if what our genes "wanted" mattered we'd never use birth control. Nonetheless, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking the broader view in some instances.)
I also second Sploop's comments about the difference between different kinds of animals. I frankly care much, much less about an animal the less capable it is of what I would recognize as "suffering." I don't care about bugs at all, for instance, and I care about, say, fish much less than I do about mammals. I think everyone draws a line. I think that a lot of meat-eaters would not eat a chimp or gorilla even if they were not endangered, for instance. I think the problem Americans have with eating dogs, even though pigs are just as smart as them or smarter, is just a result of seeing first-hand the fact that dogs experience real emotion. (The fact that dogs have evolved neonatal features and over-the-top feelings of love for their caretakers as a survival mechanism in an environment dominated by human whim helps, too.)
Anyway, lab-grown meat wouldn't raise any *ethical* problems for me. I agree with the people who've pointed out that most people eat way, way too much protein, so the health problems with eating meat and excess calories generally remain. And I doubt it will ever really work. Part of the taste of meat comes from the muscles and what have you actually having been exercised. Just growing some blob that happens to have the right DNA wouldn't taste right.
Sorry for the rambling, I think about this a lot.
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I would eat lab-grown whatever, in principle. Life itself is no more disgusting than science.
yup. most natural foods have gross origins, if you think about it. the best-tasting veggies and fruits were well-fertilized plants and the best fertilizer is poop. but we wash our veggies well and move on.
don't even get me started on how truly gross things like sausage and hot dogs are, but they are so commonplace in our diets that they have become destigmatized, and people don't think about how it got on their plate. but let me assure you, i've watched the videos, and i'd eat lab meat every day before i'd touch pretty much any store bought meat product ever again.
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I think the problem Americans have with eating dogs, even though pigs are just as smart as them or smarter, is just a result of seeing first-hand the fact that dogs experience real emotion. (The fact that dogs have evolved neonatal features and over-the-top feelings of love for their caretakers as a survival mechanism in an environment dominated by human whim helps, too.)
i completely agree with you. i've also spent some time with pigs and they're extremely sweet and affectionate and definitely develop loyalty for and have relationships with the people who take care of them. but people don't typically have pigs as pets, so they don't attach the same feelings to them that they do to dogs.
i think about these things a lot, too, i guess. part of it comes from growing up in texas and having to defend my vegetarianism to my family for 15 years. conversations they initiated, not me. then i became a vegan. then i released a vegan cookbook. now they pretty much leave me alone about it.
if you want someone to stop giving you grief about something, write a book about it!