I, for one, think not. When the idea jumped from mad science to weird science, meat-consumption proponents and animal rights groups appear to have joined hand-in-hand in hailing the dawning of a new age. Not so fast!

First, the facts: Dutch scientists at Eindhoven University, in a project that started in 2005, have created a vat-grown pork chop (wouldn’t that be appetizing on the labels: Vat-grown, culture-fed). They used muscle cells from a living pig (which counts as vivisection in my book, PETA) and incubated them in a “broth” made from animal foetus blood. This does not appear to be all that compassionate so far, although the scientists do say that future vat-grown meat will be consecrated in a synthetic medium.

No one’s yet mustered up the courage to try their nifty new culinary treat, so we don’t know how far it is from being a palatable food for syntheticarnivores© (my term). It may be a while before this pork chop crawls out of the Petri dish and onto a plate near you.

In reality, if the investors behind this little Frankenstein project manage to scare up enough capital and grow it into a fully-fledged factory-vat operation, they’ll likely make the “soggy form of pork” food for other animals—factory farmed animals. Fish feed has already been mentioned, but chickens will be next in line, followed by cattle and, perhaps, pigs. Mad pork anyone? Is it me, or does it seem like we’re fast-tracking the next pandemic-minded super-bug that wants to jump species? Looks like we may need those FEMA camps after all.
 
In the short term, synthetic meat is easy to sell to a conveniently ignorant public as a way to conserve the fish in the dying oceans. The reality is that it will only add to the agribusiness machinery already decimating the world and all its inhabitants.

Vat-grown meat is not a viable solution to anything. If all the vegetarians who blindly raised their hands and said “aye” would give this just a bit more than a Facebook post’s worth of a thought, I think they’d see it.

The health implications for the animals who will first eat this, and then the humans who will eat the animals who ate the vat-grown meat, are tremendous. None of the health issues associated with the standard diet (cancer, heart disease, diabetes et al) will be solved by consuming this stuff, no matter how much it’s fortified.
 
If vat-grown meat becomes a major commercial product, real meat will only become more desirable. Animal rights groups, animal welfare groups, and government watchdogs, for whatever they’re worth, will scrutinize and expose the animal agriculture industries less if there’s a genuine, corporate solution being peddled in the supermarkets. The chefs and foodies who follow them will be more self-righteous and repugnant than ever.

The factory food system will devolve into a tangle of useless inspection and labelling guidelines, worse even than it is now I mean. Consumers’ rights will be eroded beyond repair and they likely won’t even notice. How do I see this coming? One of the major funding sources for the lab-grown meat project is Stegeman, a Dutch sausage company owned by Sara Lee.

If computers don’t become self-aware and destroy us first, this might. Vat-grown meat does not mean you don’t have to be vegan anymore. It is not ethically acceptable and I am not conceding to it. I’ll eat my vegetables all the way to the concentration camp, thanks.

Trev, veganunderground.com

Animals possess a sense of morality that allows them to tell the difference between right and wrong, according to a controversial new book, Wild Justice. Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans. Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality.

But Prof Marc Bekoff, an ecologist at University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are "hard-wired" into the brains of all mammals and provide the "social glue" that allow often aggressive and competitive animals to live together in groups. He has compiled evidence from around the world that shows how different species of animals appear to have an innate sense of fairness, display empathy and help other animals that are in distress.

His conclusions will provide ammunition for animal welfare groups pushing to have animals treated more humanely, but some experts are sceptical about the extent to which animals can experience complex emotions and social responsibility. Prof Bekoff, who presents his case in a new book Wild Justice, said: "The belief that humans have morality and animals don't is a long-standing assumption, but there is a growing amount of evidence that is showing us that this simply cannot be the case.