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PETA –People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals– has posed a challenge to the world's scientific community: The first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of fake meat at competitive prices will receive a check for $1 million. The figure was determined by calculating the number of chickens killed every hour in the U.S. (about 1 million).


My questions are: can vegetarians eat this fake meat? Could one prove that lab-grown burgers don't have feelings? And which meat will be faked first?


See also: The meat of tomorrow, Where it came from, They are made out of meat.

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  • mk

    I disagree because they psychologically know that there was no death or suffering that went into thier meal. Done deal. And it is someone's choice-so if they choose to live in a manner that makes them more comforatble because their choices created less suffering and harm to other livng creatures-so be it. It is not yours to judge.

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  • Then I would have to agree with you, only in the grounds that this person doesn't eat meat because of suffering inflicted on the animal. But the point I was trying to make, is that, through eating this fake-meat with the same taste and pattern, one would be, at least at psychological level (the one I intended since the beginning), recreating the death of this same animal, enjoying the pleasure of eating the same meat that on one's moral grounds should be forbidden, and that's where I see the Irony.

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  • Amy

    Okay, let me put it more plainly. From the article: "...flesh that doesn't cause suffering and death." So if someone objects to eating meat purely on the grounds that it comes from suffering and death, then why <i>wouldn't</i> they eat the fake, suffering-free stuff?

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  • Amy, the whole cosmetics thing is a fallacious argument. Cosmetics are tested on animals, cosmetics aren't a by-product of an animal, such as meat or milk, which is the problem here. So I don't get your point on that. - Either way, you're argument is lacking logic and you even pointed out the problem! What's vegetarianism if not a "moral/rational consideration" wherein they choose not to eat animal by-products!?

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  • Amy

    Hey, you know, some people refuse--on moral grounds--to use cosmetics and such that were tested on animals, because to make that product, an animal had to be hurt. So, by your logic, I guess they shouldn't use <i>any</i> cosmetics, even ones that were ne ver tested on animals. If someone's decision to not do X is based purely on moral/rational considerations, not visceral disgust, then if somebody creates an X that manages to avoid whatever's undesirable about X... where's the problem? Example: Plenty of vegans drink soy milk even though they won't drink cow's milk.

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  • My logic, brent, is that I find cannibalism repulsive, so, for me it wouldn't be less of a sickening experience eating something that was announced as 'tasting like a real human' than say, eating a real one. - So, if vegetarians don't eat meat, because of their moral values that I fit within the scope of cannibalism, I find it hard how couldn't they feel the same repulsive feeling by eating this fake-meat that tasted like the animals they are so keen in protecting. - They are virtually tasting and having a delicious feast on those animals. It doesn't matter if you killed the animal or not. You are having a feast on it's virtual-flesh, you are tasting it, you are having pleasure while doing it. And how can an animal loving fellow not feel wrong with that how cannot that be ironic when you take into account vegetarians values?

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  • I don't see your logic, inlogic. Eating a human requires killing a human. Eating human-flavored-meat does not harm anyone, even though it's a pretty gross concept. The same applies for eating animal-flavored-meat.

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  • You want fries with that?

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  • Oh, and that sure does look like a delicious hamburger! Is https://nextnature.net taking take-away/house orders? (I don't want hyper-real hamburger nor nextnature's concept of next-nature's hamburger :P)

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  • Isn't it a bit hilariousy-ironic? A Project by vegetarians, that would allow them to, in what could be defined as an hyper-real experience, be eating and tasting the virtual-flavor of the same animals they are trying to protect! I think, in my personal opinion, eating Human-flavoured-meat wouldn't be less of a sickening experience and morally adverse, than that of cooking a genuine human lol.

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