"Semi-Living"

"Potentially this work presents a future in which there will be meat (or protein rich food) for vegetarians and the killing and suffering of animals destined for food consumption will be reduced. Furthermore, ecological and economical problems associated with the food industry (hence, growing grains to feed the animals and keeping them in basic conditions) can be reduced dramatically."

They ask:

"However, by making our food a new class of object/being – a Semi-Living – we are risking of making the Semi-Living the new class for exploitation?" (Full Thoughts)


Personally, I think this has great promise. I know a lot of people are skittish about genetically modified foods and cloning, but I have seen any inherent problems with them yet (though if mishandled they can cause tremendous collateral damage to the environment).

Basically this technology takes a small piece of flesh from an animal and grows it into a large piece of meat. The animal doesn't get killed, and the amount of nutrients (think animal feed/grain) that it takes to grow it is far less than current methods (raise and slaughter).

Steak from a petri dish may not sound appetizing, but right now they are talking about starting out with things like sausage. Seriously, if you aren't squeamish about sausage now, this shouldn't bother you either.

(I think the answer to their question is "no" by the way).

[Story via Fanatic Cook]