Lab-Grown Meat Health Concerns: A Closer Look and Religious Perspectives
In recent years, lab-grown meat, also known as cultured or synthetic meat, has garnered significant attention as a potential solution to address the supposed environmental and ethical concerns associated with traditional livestock farming.
Living in a highly scientific era has it’s perks, but not so much with food. With the growing knowledge and acceptance from the mainstream health community that processed foods have long-term deleterious effects on health, the idea of producing an even more complex form of processed food is simply frightening.
Modern processed food (candy bars, jarred mayonnaise, “wonder breads”, Kool-aid, and processed cheeses) are a little more than a 100 years old. As inflation spilled into Western nations, and jobs rapidly dissipated, the reliance on processed foods became greater, as one wage earner in a family, became an almost impossibility. In light of these societal shifts; the need for quick, convenient, and delicious foods became essential. There is no one alive now that hasn’t been routinely exposed to processed foods.
Recently, let’s say in the past 30 years; there has been a mainstream condemnation of processed foods, but this is only after millions have succumbed to obesity, chronic illness and sadly, even death. All this resulting from the constant bombardment of food products devoid of nutrients and chocked full of chemicals.
Lab-grown meat, with it’s promise of eliminating the environmental concerns of our times, has proprietary secret recipes and no long-term health studies.
We know nothing of this new “miracle meat” - we don’t even know how it’s production impacts the carbon-footprint. We know that billionaires have invested heavily in it’s success, and that it “tastes just like meat,” but other than that, our health hasn’t been considered.
There is precedent for being concerned about new foods that are artificially configured. There are chronic illnesses that have led to countless deaths from the processed, (once new foods), that have become a part of our everyday staples. The p00r health outcomes from daily ingestion of chemically contrived foods have run through the population more efficiently than any germ, or any weapon heretofore.
In this article, we’ll look at the process around lab grown meat, it’s energy burden, and the “what-if” scenarios around long-term health.
The Process of Growing Lab-Grown Meat and the Ethical Considerations
Lab-grown meat is produced through a process known as “cellular agriculture.” It involves cultivating animal cells in a controlled laboratory setting to create meat products.
A simplified overview of the process:
Cell Collection: A small sample of animal cells, often derived from a biopsy of muscle tissue is collected from a live animal. These cells contain the genetic blueprint for meat production.
Cell Culture: The collected cells are placed in a nutrient-rich medium that mimics the conditions within an animal's body. This medium promotes cell growth and replication.
Tissue Formation: Over time, the cells multiply and organise themselves into muscle fibers, which form the basis of meat tissue.
Harvesting and Processing: Once enough tissue is grown, it is harvested and processed into familiar meat products, such as cuts of meat or burgers.
This process is thought to be less resource-intensive, doesn’t entail animal suffering, and doesn’t negatively affect the environment. We’ll discuss the resources and environment later, as those assumptions may not be proven at this stage.
Considering that lab grown meat has been introduced as an ethical/moral alternative, it is interesting to note the views of artificially contrived meat from religious perspectives. A study found that when lab-grown meat was described as “clean meat,” e.g., meat that was “real meat grown directly from animal cells”, produced in “clean facilities, and the process did not involve “raising and slaughtering farm animals," people were overwhelmingly happy with it.
Looking at it from a religious perspective, I’m not convinced that the way the meat was described in the study was very fair or accurate. Especially given that pretty much every religion alludes to either complete avoidance of living flesh altogether, or a need to eat what has been naturally provided and / or slaughtered.
For example, Hindu’s make it clear that any augmenting of flesh with that of another creature’s is spiritually considered a miserable existence. Therefore would the use of animal cells in “artificial meat“ contradict this prohibition?
"He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth." - Mahabharata, Anu. Hindu holy book.
Buddhists typically believe that all “Living Beings” that eat one another are to be reborn as carnivorous animals. Again, this “artificial meat” is made from animal cells, therefore is still of an animal. How is this process actually cleaner? Weird science.
"The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion". Buddha. - Mahaparinirvana (Mahayana Version)
Muslim’s have to consider the slaughter of animals in terms of meat consumption - but this meat isn’t slaughtered. So would “artificial meat” contradict their edict about eating what is naturally provided?
“Then eat of what Allah has provided for you [which is] lawful and good. And be grateful for the favour of Allah , if it is [indeed] Him that you worship.” Surah Al Nahl
The study considered Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews because of their specific rules and customs around meat consumption.
No one asked Christians how they feel about lab-grown meat ethically - the assumption being there are no prohibitions on food, therefore, lab-grown meat would be acceptable. But, the Bible does speak to a natural, organic way of eating and raising animals:
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.’ Genesis 1:28-30
As Judaism also includes Genesis in their holy book, the Torah, the same could be said. Yet, Judaism differs in pure interpretation of the scripture, as a Rabbi ultimately determines whether a food is considered “fit and proper,” or Kosher.
Of course, I’m not a religious leader, and as a Christian, the questions I raised around the other religious texts may be off the mark, or out of context. The fact that I’m not a reverend, ordained clergy, or a theologian also means many Christians may disagree.
What is most consistent when looking at religious texts is the purity of their fundamental narratives. These concepts arise out of the belief that what God created, and what the natural environment demonstrates to us, should be our consideration when eating or interacting with animals. These are the fundamental principles of naturopathy - the understanding that disease arises out of our disharmony with nature and the natural world, what God has provided for us.
To some, religion may not be a sole determiner of ethics, if it factors in at all. Yet, it’s interesting that religious people were consulted around how lab-grown meat stacked up, and in trying to explain this new meat to them, the ubiquitous religious concept of “cleanliness” and what was considered humane, was presented as clean. Without any evidence at all that these assumptions were true.
Environmental Impact
So how does lab grown meat check out environmentally? We’re constantly being told that lab-grown meat is good for the environment, and that commercial livestock is destructive to the environment. I wholeheartedly agree that the techniques used in corporate agribusiness animal agriculture are destructive, torturous processes, for the animals and our health. Animals are huddled in crowded, stressful conditions, enabling the spread of disease and resulting in poor quality meat. This has been thought of as the source of zoonotic disease, such as salmonella found in meat products. The animals are exposed to pesticides and chemicals that interfere with their brain function, and lead to depression, aggression and unhealthy habits of which they would otherwise not engage. They are pumped with antibiotics and hormones, and eat feed that have E-coli and salmonella. The endgame results in both animal and human illness. Conventional animal agriculture is barbaric.
And what makes it worse, is that conventional animal agriculture is unnecessary. The need for these conditions lay not in the rising population, but the fact that the majority of meat products are not local; e.g., they’re shipped from other countries, as local farmers have lost hundreds of acreage over the last 60 years.
Most farm land is now owned by companies whose bottom line is profit, not the overall health, “sustainability” and continuation of the planet through the generations. With that said, this lab-grown meat is supposed to eliminate all of these issues, by allowing these corporations to produce our meat in the same way they do our potato chips.
Even with little research there are still some known draw-backs to lab grown meat is:
Energy Intensive: The production of lab-grown meat requires significant amounts of energy to maintain controlled environments, nutrient solutions, and the necessary equipment. This energy consumption will contribute to greenhouse gas emissions if derived from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels will be necessary to meet the demands, as alternative energy sources have proven to be unreliable in mass production environments. This may encourage the further use of nuclear energy, which has significant safety concerns around waste removal and fracking, which produces significant levels of greenhouse gases, toxic pollutants and waste water.
Resource Use: The cultivation of cells for lab-grown meat still relies on the use of resources like water and plant-based nutrients, which will have environmental consequences. In addition, we end up sequestering the production of more chemicals we don’t know anything about. This may have an economic and supply-chain knock-on effect on other industries where those chemicals may be more useful in their appropriate context.
Waste Management: The disposal of waste by-products from the cell culture process will pose environmental challenges. With water becoming increasingly polluted with chemicals, sewage and other waste, can we really afford a new production process that involves more water waste?
Health Concerns
1. Ultra-Processed Food: Lab-grown meat, like many processed foods, is an ultra-processed food that requires additional processing to improve texture, taste, and shelf life. This system will involve the use of additives and preservatives, which is concerning, as this will be a next-generation highly processed meat product.
2. Nutritional Profile: The nutritional profile of lab-grown meat may vary depending on the growth medium and processing methods used. And, like other processed foods, artificial nutrients are not as bio-available (useful for our bodies) as naturally derived nutrition. While it may offer a lower trans-fat content compared to traditional meat, healthy fats and other nutrients like vitamins and minerals will be negligible if they exist at all.
3. Long-Term Health Effects: The long-term health effects of consuming lab-grown meat are not transparent or understood. Given the 100 years we’ve waited to understand the impact of our current processed foods; we may be just sitting and waiting for another public health disaster.
Conclusion
The agribusiness folks are making lots of false promises about lab-grown meat, because livestock has become a liability to their profit margin.
The commercial meat production process as it stands, requires copious amounts of vaccinations, antibiotics, toxic chemicals and hormones, inflicting the most barbaric practices upon God’s living creatures you will ever see.
They have cows with hooves full of pus, chickens with dementia pecking themselves to death, and other animals so depressed they hardly look outside anymore. This way of animal farming has become tiresome to the higher-ups - not for its obvious cruelty, but because it is no longer conducive to making large profits. The ability to ship meat long distances creates a monopoly, but it also creates a dependency for everyday consumers, whereby the corporations and hierarchies are solely responsible for the world’s food supply.
Their practices have been called into question and now they want to move on, and that’s why lab-grown meat holds great promise for them. They want the ease and financial expediency of a production line process in the same way that they make handbags or cups … at the expense of our health and the health of the environment.
It’s vital we consider the energy and resource-intensive nature of lab grown meat production, and the potential health implications of a technology that has no long-term studies. We already know the dangers of consuming highly processed meat products. This is a new and more severe level of chemical interference. We need to consider the impact this food will have not only on ourselves, but our future generations.
