Not because of the cruelty to animal aspect of the Vegan movement.
It's not like I'm a sadistic person who likes to see animals suffer, either.
I believe animals should be killed as is humanely possible when it comes to slaughtering them for their meat and skins.
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| Who names a chicken Ian and refers to it as a he, by the way? |
And I have no illusions about that.
But maybe I should ditch the honey, too?
Sometimes it's hard to get good info on eating Vegan without the political guilt BS that goes with the movement.
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| Celebrity Vegan Radio |
Why You Should Have A Beef With Meat! (Part 1)
But today on the NPR 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog I saw this story about growing meat in the lab -
Clean Meat, Via Lab, Is On The Way
"A year ago this month, animal activist Paul Shapiro sat in the offices of the Hampton Creek food technology company in
San Francisco and put a forkful of foie gras in his mouth.
This small act was a big deal. Shapiro, at the time the vice president of farm animal protection at the
Humane Society of the United States, hadn't eaten meat or any animal product for decades. And the fatty duck liver, considered a delicacy, is notoriously associated with forced feeding of ducks, a process which grossly increases size of the liver and causes suffering and sometimes death. It is an illegal procedure in California.
Shapiro's forkful of food was foie gras with a difference, though. It had been grown from avian starter cells taken in a quick and painless muscle-biopsy procedure from a living duck.
Fruit with a meaty texture
""I make a curry out of green jackfruit. I see it as being more like chicken than pulled pork, but if you were to really tease it out and pull it apart I could imagine it would be like pulled pork," she said.
"With the curry I make, you cut the skin off and you use the whole rest of the fruit. It's delicious and it tastes like chicken.""
I guess everyone has different tastes when it comes to the Vegan diet and what it means to them personally, but is lab meat a truly good Vegan substitute?
Obviously not.
This small act was a big deal. Shapiro, at the time the vice president of farm animal protection at the
Humane Society of the United States, hadn't eaten meat or any animal product for decades. And the fatty duck liver, considered a delicacy, is notoriously associated with forced feeding of ducks, a process which grossly increases size of the liver and causes suffering and sometimes death. It is an illegal procedure in California.
Shapiro's forkful of food was foie gras with a difference, though. It had been grown from avian starter cells taken in a quick and painless muscle-biopsy procedure from a living duck.
Just like with "clean" hamburgers (using bovine starter cells), this is cellular agriculture: real meat grown in a laboratory without any need for animal slaughter.
In his book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, hitting the shelves Tuesday, Shapiro describes what happened next: "As I closed my eyes and let the fatty liver melt on my tongue, the Hampton Creek foie gras brought me an amount of pleasure I'll confess I was a little embarrassed to admit.""
In his book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, hitting the shelves Tuesday, Shapiro describes what happened next: "As I closed my eyes and let the fatty liver melt on my tongue, the Hampton Creek foie gras brought me an amount of pleasure I'll confess I was a little embarrassed to admit.""
That might be good news for meat-eaters, but for people like me who have given up meat mainly for the health benefits of a Vegan diet, it means nothing.
It's probably good news for the planet's resources like land and water and it probably is good news for the Vegans who are more worried about animal slaughter, but it means nothing as far as health benefits of eating a Vegan diet goes.
""I make a curry out of green jackfruit. I see it as being more like chicken than pulled pork, but if you were to really tease it out and pull it apart I could imagine it would be like pulled pork," she said.
"With the curry I make, you cut the skin off and you use the whole rest of the fruit. It's delicious and it tastes like chicken.""
Obviously not.
And here's a Franken thought, what's to stop mad scientists from growing human cells for consumption?
There's probably a black-market potential there, right?-)
Bon appétit.
Yes the taste for meat is "natural" because we're all descended from pea-brained cavemen in loincloths who used to run around bashing cows on the head.
ReplyDeleteOr not.
When you realise Darwin was just a rich twit trying to convince everybody that his family's genes were better than everyone else's, the whole notion fades away a bit.
I started a vegan blog for the exact reasons you just gave, that there isn't much intelligent, non-militant vegan commentary around.
A sample post here.
I've got a lot of respect for you "syncromystic" guys, you're the poets of the age. Keep it up.
That's a great sample post there Iain and it's great finding a (what seems to me at first glance anyway) a balanced Vegan blog with the kind of information someone fairly new (I went Vegan for about 8 months years ago, but nearly destroyed my health by OD-ing on soy products in my diet) to the game like me is looking for.
ReplyDeleteI like how you wrote in that post -
"Well we can start with aesthetics.
When a lion cub sees a nearby gazelle with its throat ripped out, he likely sees lunch.
What do you think a human toddler would see?
I think he would cry and run away.
If you put a strawberry and a bunny rabbit into a playpen with a toddler, do you think he would eat the bunny rabbit and play with the strawberry?
A lion cub would.
A human cub, not so much.
A toddler is delighted by animals.
Animals are our friends.
Otherwise, why Bugs Bunny, Peppa Pig, BABE, Micky Mouse, and all the rest?"
If you have read my more recent post 'The BBQ' it's about Magda Szubanski's latest film, which is soon to hit Aussie cinema screens and also about one of the biggest abattoirs in Oz burning down a few days back.
Magda of course played the farmer's wife in the movie 'Babe', as well.
"Living is easy with eyes closed"...but ultimately deadly for individuals and the planet.
Strawberry Fields Forever.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteActually living with eyes closed reminds me of meditation and accessing the bounty of the dark mother. Zombies always have their eyes open but don't see. Or they just see fresh flesh!
Just a thought, although of course I know what you mean.
That movie is now on my To Watch list!