Test tube meat is of interest to people who genuinely like cats. You kill far less animals to produce test tube meat. That should please genuine cat lovers because cat lovers are seriously concerned about animal welfare.
Vegetarians don’t eat “meat” (a euphemism for the flesh of animals). They don’t eat it because producing meat is bad for animals. You have to kill them and treat them like “products” to be commercially viable in a capitalist society. There are other reasons why we should not eat meat. Green-house gases are one reason. Cows produce methane, which, it is said, contributes to global warming.
Also, on a common sense basis, a lot of people like meat but are concerned about the way it is produced. A billion (1,000,000,000) animals are killed in the UK alone (including fish) per year to feed the human flesh eaters of the country. The conditions under which they live are sometimes highly questionable.
In general, people who like cats, don’t like the way “meat” is produced commercially. Business struggles to treat animals well because it costs more to treat animals well. People who like cats like to see animals treated well.
The first in vitro burgers have been produced using stem cells from cows. You still need a source of living creatures to create the stem cells from which more are “grown” but the number of animals required are far less than normal. If we can produce burgers in a test tube, it is probably a good thing provided there are no unforeseen problems regarding human health and animal welfare.
I, for one, welcome it. I don’t eat red meat. I eat chicken and fish occasionally. I don’t really like doing it because both chickens and fish suffer at the hands of big business. I have more or less stopped eating fish. I stopped eating red meat years ago.
I am a bit old fashioned in eating “meat” occasionally. If I could eat a burger that was created with an absolute minimum detriment to cows, it would please me.
I have been criticized for eating “meat”. As mentioned my habits have changed a lot. I haven’t eaten red meat for decades. I sometimes eat chicken and occasionally fish and even that causes concern.
If test tube meat gains traction I wonder if it will, eventually, be used for cat food? If it does happen, I believe it will change the operation of cat shelters in the USA. I say that euthanised shelter cats are used in cat food. If in vitro meat becomes cheaper to create it may lead to more true no-kill cat shelters in the USA because there would be no profit in killing shelter cats.
Agreed. Everyone lives in fear. Most people don’t realise it. The human race is a terrified headless chicken. That is disrespectful of chickens and I apologise but it conveys the meaning.
Right on Michael!
I think fear plays a big part in this arrogance and ignorance too.
Our enormous brain has given us the ability to radically change our environment and bully our way to the “top” of the food chain. Any reminder to some, that we are still animals seems to enrage many people, especially those who consider that we are “more” than animals.
Our claim to this superior status is tenuous at best, and I think that deep down, those who claim that humans are superior, realise this and their fear of facing their animal nature makes them defensive. I think fear is behind much deliberate cruelty to animals, the need to prove superiority to animals by dominating them with abuse.
I see being classed as an animal as a compliment rather than an insult. I like the way animals do anything to avoid conflict, how they have an economic and effective approach to survival. How they don’t allow ego to distort everything around them.
I agree about cat caretakers, we are a good bunch of apes. I don’t want to get into a cat/dog debate, but I think cats are great levellers of people. Successful cat/human relationships are more about equality and harmony rather than dominance.
No cat responds to demand. Alas many humans need to see that from other animals before they deem other species worthy of respect.
Good people on this site. Long may they and the cats they care for, thrive 🙂
Hi Jane, you’re like me. I like your CV! One of the great human self-deceptions is that people don’t accept that they are animals like any other. This distances us from nature and from other animals and encourages and justifies the use and abuse people dish out to animals. As I frequently argue, it is a toxic mix of arrogance and ignorance. A lot of the world is like that. People in developed countries seem to be little better than those in undeveloped countries. Religion tends to make matters worse.
All good cat caretakers have a humble view of themselves. They tend to see their cat as an equal. I have never seen any animal as anything other than an equal. It is natural to think like that.
In a nutshell, I’m all for human neutering!
There are quite a few I’d like to TNR 😉
Cal, I’m just Jane, a cat lover from the UK. I don’t use any other online names. I’m an atheist, a humanist, I don’t formally publish my riffs or ramblings anywhere. I believe all humans are animals and have forgotten so which has been to the detriment of every living being. Being an animal is a good thing 🙂
I asked the in house scientist here about this harvesting of stem cells. He said that stem cells can be harvested from either umbilical cord blood or from bone marrow. Harvesting bone marrow from a dead donor wouldn’t produce reliably active cells. Decay of blood cells happens very quickly at death. In house scientist had a name for this decay which I have forgotten.
Molecular paper food? Oh how yummy does that sound? lol.
Caroline you should see the one of Babz sitting opposite me that I took of her having her brekkie, it’s the funniest I have seen for ages, I just have to look at it and it cheers me up.
But I can’t share it, it’s far too frightening lol lol