Philosophical Vegan Forum

Anyone else read this new post?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/13/46055 ... can-fix-it

Thoughts?

So much money and time is spent on creating this lab meat, I'm wondering if there will be an affordable, viable product after all of this. Will people really choose to eat it? How many resources will go into producing it?

Im skeptical, and one thing about this article that annoys me is that it doesn't seriously address the vegan route. It acknowledges the harm caused by current farming practices on health and the environment, but doesn't give any weight to actually going vegan.

It talks about vegetarianism quite a bit.

Bioreactor meat is perfectly viable, the issue is getting it affordable. Not many people want to invest in the technology without knowing if the market will accept it -- something that will only really be known for sure once the product is available at an affordable price. But to achieve an affordable price, you have to have the large scale of production that comes from a demanding market.

Bit of a catch-22, maybe.

The only way it will happen is for entrepreneurs more interested in making the world a better place than protecting their investments and making money to put real cash into it.
Crowd funding might also be an option, but unfortunately the people who should support it most - vegans - are often the most hostile to the concept.

PETA created an X-prize a few years ago, but that wasn't realistic (they had no risk of losing their money, it was just for promoting awareness).

I feel like a carbon tax is needed to make this economically viable. I think a carbon tax would have endless positive effects anyway, so yeah. At least there is some publicity about the issues of meat, that's nice.

We have tofu right? It tastes 90% like meat..