[This mirrors my views on the subject.]

*Why “growing meat without animals” is NOT a solution: two views*

On Jan. 10, we published “Slaughter-Free Flesh for Humanity
<http://www.upc-online.org/broiler/180110_slaughter-free_flesh_for_humanity.html>”
which drew fire
from some animal rights advocates including Joan Harrison, whose letter,
“When
Even ‘Clean Meat’ Isn’t Clean Enough,” appeared in *The Wall Street Journal*
,
January 13, 2018, as follows:

Regarding Matthew Scully’s review of Paul Shapiro’s “Clean Meat” (Books,
Jan.
6): I’m afraid I cannot agree with my fellow activists’ enthusiasm about
so-called clean meat. The new technology may relieve animal suffering to
some
extent in the short term by using donor herds, which would suffer and be
enslaved to provide cells out of which meat is then laboratory grown.
Though
this may end factory farming, which would be a blessing, it will do
nothing to
end the public’s identification of animals with food. Indeed, it will
likely
confirm this.

The object is not to end factory farming; the object is to end animal
farming
as such. The promoting of meat of this sort is thus a pernicious
undermining
of animal liberation. According to psychology professor and animal
activist
Bill Crain, experiments show that people eating the flesh of animals
generally
perceive animals in a negative light in contrast to people who don’t. Is
this
something we really wish to encourage? What about flesh emerging from a
bioreactor? Why not promote Monsanto’s GMOs? And what about developing
meat
from human cells? If the latter is repulsive to you, and clean meat from
cows,
pigs, chickens and lambs nevertheless seems okay, you are still under the
sway
of speciesism, the evils of which are well known. A simpler solution is
available, though it’ll take some time, one that is consistent with and
would
facilitate the liberating of animals both nonhuman and human: adopting a
plant-based diet. It’s already happening.

Joan Harrison
New York

_______________________

*On Jan. 25, UPC President Karen Davis asked Philosophy Professor, John Sanbonmatsu – who will be speaking at our March 10, 2018 Conscious Eating*
*Conference in Berkeley, CA – what he thinks of “clean meat.” He wrote
back:*

John Sanbonmatsu, PhD:
http://www.upc-online.org/forums/2018/index.html#john_sanbonmatsu

RE: “Clean Meat,” I think it is folly, for several reasons:

* I think too many vegans are thinking of this as the Holy Grail, which may
subtly be taking pressure and urgency off of other modes of action and
analysis.

* The framing of the discourse as “clean” vs. “unclean” meat aestheticizes
meat,
which is already an aestheticized commodity. The reality is, one form of
“meat” is based on genocidal violence, exploitation, and injustice, and
the
other isn’t. So it should be framed as a choice between violence and
nonviolence, not “cleanliness” in either an aesthetic or “morally
virtuous”
sense (as in, I have a “clean conscience”). One of the cafes here in
Cambridge
[MA] is called “Clear Conscience Cafe,” and naturally they serve grassfed
Angus beef, etc.

* I think it’s a terrible mistake to confuse the issue in consumers’ already
confused minds between “good” and “bad” forms of animal products. I was
in NYC
over the weekend, and one of the grocery stores had organic turkey and pig
sausages literally mixed in with the vegan “meat” products. So the
messaging
is, “This is where you get the ‘alternative’ and ‘healthy’ stuff, take
your
pick.” The last thing we need is to have ontological meat (i.e. flesh)
being
sold to consumers as more “ethical” meat.

* Most higher-end consumers will continue to choose “organic” and “local”
animal
flesh over synthetic, lab-grown meats. Why? Because they are figured as
“authentic.” Michael Pollan sneers when the topic of syn-meat comes up:
like,
who would want THAT? Just think about how educated Americans have been
steering away from “processed” and “artificial” foods for a generation.
And
now we want them to eat burgers made with lab-grown cow cells? No way. The
meat industry will turn right around and promote authentic meat even more
heavily than they do now.

* The whole synthetic meat movement is perpetuating the lie that the only
reason, or main reason, we can’t have universal veganism and an end to
animal
agriculture is because there are no “good” alternatives. That, and the lie
that the reason people “can’t” (or won’t) give up eating animals is
because
animals just taste TOO GOOD. Well, I don’t believe that. Yes, there are
undoubtedly some people so hooked on the exact specific taste of bacon or
whatever that they will cling to it until Doomsday. But I don’t think that
accounts for most or even a big part of resistance to Animal Rights or to
veganism specifically.

* What’s going to happen with this stuff is precisely what happened to Whole
Foods and the whole “humane meat” industry: synthetic meats will not be
competing with cheaper meat commodities; this industry will be competing
with
the chi-chi market for specialized foods. So the price point is going to
be
set high, because that’s where the market is going to be most lucrative
(because this is capitalism). Meanwhile, as I said, if the typical
consumer is
faced with a menu of “real” chicken and “synthetic real” chicken, he/she
is
going to choose the real chicken most of the time, or so I believe.

* If humans think so little of the dignity or suffering of animals that they
can’t or won’t countenance giving up farmed animal flesh until and unless
there is an exact, one-to-one replacement, in taste, texture,
availability,
etc., then what are the odds that they will make any concerted effort to
switch to synthetic meats at all?

* Against the odds, somehow, we need to smash speciesism as an idea and a
set of
institutions and beliefs and interpellated identities. If we don’t
challenge
that, if we can’t undermine it, I think it’s going to continue to be Game
Over
for animals, and all of the synthetic meats in the world won’t amount to
anything.

John Sanbonmatsu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Humanities and Arts
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA 01609

_______________________

Register NOW for UPC’s Seventh Annual Conscious Eating Conference:

*What are the Most Compassionate Choices? *

Berkeley, CA, March 10, 2018.
Information & Registration
<http://www.upc-online.org/forums/2018/index.html>

—
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes
the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
Don’t just switch from beef to chicken. Go Vegan.
http://www.UPC-online.org/ http://www.twitter.com/upcnews
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