Would you welcome cat food made with vat-grown meat?

Scientists are working on growing meat in a vat. This would be “meet without murder”.  It would be genuine meat without the need to slaughter 40 billion creatures annually. There would be a fantastic reduction in land and water pollution from animal waste. There would be big environmental benefits in making meat artificially. It’s time to make factory farms a thing of the past.

I’m sure that a sizable percentage of good cat guardians are concerned about general animal welfare including the welfare of livestock. It is hidden away but livestock is often treated very badly in the interests of maximizing profits.

There must be many vegetarians who have a cat companion. It must irritate to have to feed their cat with meat-based products. Although, we are all aware that in many manufactured cat food products there is very little actual meat but there should be more. Would vegetarians go back to eating meat if it was genuine but artificially created?

I wonder if people who eat halal meat would welcome meat grown in a vat? That said, my experience of running this website indicates to me that Muslims are generally unlikely to look after a domestic cat so perhaps the question is irrelevant.

Eventually, when mass produced, artificially grown meat could bring down the price of meat, which should allow pet food manufacturers to be generous in using it in the production of cat food. Imagine cat food with real meat in it as a standard.

Ingrid Nekirk of PETA is naturally delighted that scientists are working on artificial meat , “This is one of the most exciting developments ever,” she says.

People and cats would have the opportunity to eat meat without the cruelty associated with its production.

Artificially produced meat on the shelves is around 5-10 years off. The Dutch are working on creating pork from stem cells, for instance.

There will be resistance to vat-grown meat. People like things to be as natural as possible and if they are distanced from the inherent cruelty of some forms of meat production they won’t want to change.

However, in due course, there will probably be a time when the norm for cat food will be artificially produced cat meat ingredients and our cats will be healthier for it.

The vets will no doubt protest because they’ll lose business. There will be a lot of big businesses trying to block this development because they’ll lose out.