Shmeat

As long time readers know, I am a passionate advocate for in-vitro meat production. Who knows if we'll see it in my lifetime -- even Winston Churchill said in 1932: "Fifty years hence we will escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." Sadly it hasn't become a reality yet.

There's plenty of talk about it out there, much of it satirical... it was recently skewered on the Colbert Report, for instance. But serious websites like New Harvest are keeping track of the progress being made, and it's heartening.

I recently stumbled across a great overview article by Mat Thomas and I thought I'd share it here. One quote I like...

"If advocates are serious about reducing institutionalized animal abuse and environmental devastation, they will throw their weight and resources behind lab-grown meat," declares Dr. Greger. "Given the inhumane treatment of animals raised and killed for meat within modern agribusiness, I can think of no faster way to dramatically stem the cruelty of such customary abuses as intensive confinement and unnaturally fast growth than to provide humane alternatives to factory farm products." Paul Shapiro, Manager of HSUS's Factory Farming Campaign, strongly concurs. "In vitro meat has the potential to reduce an enormous amount of animal suffering. It could provide consumers with food that's virtually identical to traditional meat without the animal cruelty."

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.