While veganism is fundamentally a justice movement that rejects exploitation of other beings, animal advocates can run the gamut from fully embracing veganism to only working for welfare reform, and there is no shortage of voices within the animal advocacy movement that are promoting lab-grown meat.
One of the things
that I did this year at Summerfest (a few weeks ago in Johnstown Pa) was to
moderate a panel discussion on the topic of Lab-Grown Meat. The video from
that panel discussion has now been posted
HERE on YouTube. Some people have
criticized this panel as being, "one-sided." And it's true, this panel
included only the perspective of those who believe it is wrong to exploit
animals at all and that vegans should not be promoting or endorsing any
forms of violence or exploitation of other creatures on the grounds that it
may be, "less terrible" than what is currently being done to them.
People who identify as, "animal advocates" include both vegans and
non-vegans. While veganism is fundamentally a justice movement that rejects
exploitation of other beings, animal advocates can run the gamut from fully
embracing veganism to only working for welfare reform, and there is no
shortage of voices within the animal advocacy movement that are promoting
lab-grown meat.
Organizations like HSUS, MFA and PETA with big budgets have helped make it
that the only perspective most advocates have even heard about lab meat is
the one that aligns with market growth: Investors are betting that lab-meat
will allow for continued growth of animal protein, once we run out of space
to grow more meat the traditional way - on farms.
That 's why this panel was only, "one side." But if you want to hear the
justifications of those promoting lab-meat (and to better understand how
grass-roots activism can be co-opted) then I'd recommend you also take a
look at the much longer,
2-sided debate that was part of the Conscious
Eating Conference back in March in Berkeley, CA.
NOTE from All-Creatures.org: Visit CleanMeat-Hoax.com.
Return to: Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies