Lab Grown Meat
J Y Provocative Question #31: What are your thoughts on lab-grown meat? Should lab-grown meat innovation be pursued, or should it be banned? How do you think lab-grown meat should be regulated?
It is kind of interesting that meat can be manufactured in a laboratory. True_George has heard that it is done by taking the stem cells of a cow and putting them in a petri dish with ammino acids and carbohydrates. The muscles cells will start to multiply and grow, when enough of the muscle fibers have grown, the result will be a meat that resembles a stake.
The method was developed back in 2013, the cost of manufacturing the lab grown meat was over three hundred thousand dollars, now it is said that the price is just eleven dollars. I suppose that the price will drop even further as technology evolves.
While the price of lab-grown meat drops, then the price of animal-based meats will rise. Soon, it will become so expensive, only the rich will be able to afford to get meat from a slain animal, unless you live out on the free range and go hunting, the regular everyday folks will be the ones consuming the lab-grown meat.
Thinking of the process of developing this lab-grown meat, it sure sounds like cloning. Does this mean that scientists are able to manufacture parts of a human being the same way that they are manufacturing a T-bone steak. It does sound feasible, anyway I guess that is another subject for another time.
Lab-grown meat innovations is the future, and it will be pursued whether we like it of not. But there is going to be resistance from the meat industry. Slaughtering animals for consumption is big business. Many people will lose their source of economics once this lab-grown meat industry starts to take off.
But, there might be a larger implication. If meat can be lab-grown, so can an animal’s skin, so leather and fur clothing will be cheaper to manufacture. O.K, I’m getting off topic again. But, this is thought provoking.
As, far as regulating Lab-grown meat, I’m sure that there will be some type of regulations on this industry just like other industries are being regulated.
Now, consider that when lab-grown meat becomes the norm, it means that there may be the possibility that there will be less hunger in the world.
True_George 
I actually had no idea that the price of lab-grown meat was down to $11 to produce vs. $300k! One of my initial reactions to the ban in Florida was that, aside from the fact that I didn’t think lab-grown meat should be banned in the first place, it felt premature as the technology was still too expensive to be commercially viable. But maybe the day when the cost will come down is coming sooner than I imagined!
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Interesting post. I’m generally in favour of lab-grown meat as I’m vegetarian so don’t like that animals are killed for meat (not that I would ever condemn or criticise anyone for eating meat as I think that’s none of my business. I suppose it does depend how they’re going to get the stem cells in the first place though… You make some great points in your post!
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