In my draft book World After Capital, I have a section on Human Needs. I am currently in the middle of rewriting that section (so don’t go read it now) because it suffers in parts from a confusion between needs and solutions. What do I mean by that confusion? Our bodies need nutrition for survival. That is the need. Eating meat is, however, only one of many possible solutions for that need. Vegetarians or vegans provide nutrition to their bodies without consuming meat. And some people are attempting to take in all their nutrients through something like Soylent.
I grew up in a heavily meat eating part of the world and love eating meat to this day. But intellectually I have a lot of issues with doing so. I believe cows, sheep, pigs, chicken, fish have consciousness and raising them solely (and often in horrible circumstances) for our consumption is wrong. Cows and to a lesser degree sheep also happen to produce methane which is a super potent greenhouse gas. Finally, meat is often transported over a long distance which also contributes to emissions (at least for the time being).
For these reasons I am super excited about the progress with lab grown or cultured meat. This is a perfect example of the extraordinary power of knowledge and the potential for progress. In the past, humanity developed the knowledge for hunting and eventually for raising animals. Animal meat became an important part of human nutrition, but – like other progress – this came with its own set of problems. Now we are using even more knowledge to overcome these moral and practical problems!
It is therefore wonderful news that the prices for lab grown meat have come down dramatically and are now at about 3-4x that of regular ground beef. I would be a buyer even at that premium and I believe there will be quite a few “early adopters” who can help sustain the companies that are pioneering this, such as Memphis Meats.
