Artificial Meat

Chapter Summary

Emerging tissue engineering techniques enable growing animal tissue for human consumption in vitro, without the animals. Growing meat in this way, rather than “on the hoof,” has been promoted as a way to reduce the suffering and eliminate the inefficiencies (and so ecological impacts) associated with animal agriculture. In this chapter, Paul Thompson critically evaluates the case in favor of artificial meat. He argues that the considerations offered in support of it are not decisive, for several reasons — e.g. artificial meat is not likely to displace meat grown on the hoof (for economic and aesthetic reasons), it has not been shown to be more ecological efficient, and it does not provide a substitute for non-meat animal parts such as hides. Moreover, those who are concerned about the industrialization of agriculture are likely to be opposed to artificial meat, since its production will be industrial. Furthermore, the case for synthetic meat involves comparing it to meat produced in concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs). However, there are other alternatives — less intensive, more humane forms of animal agriculture — that might be preferable to both CAFOs and artificial meat.