Equating lab-grown meat with animal meat is 'kooky thinking' - Alliance for Natural Health

"Civilized man is the only animal clever enough to manufacture its own food, and the only animal stupid enough to eat it."

 Barry Groves PhD (1936-2013), nutritionist

Faux meat investors hope to replace real meat

Manufacturing our own food and eating it is the situation that we may soon be facing with (stem) cell-cultivated lab-grown meat based on CRISPR gene-editing technology. Will we indeed be shown to be “stupid” if we eat it, as Barry Groves stated in the above quote highlighted by the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH)?

Standing to profit, ANH USA explains, are those heavily invested in Upside Foods such as large meatpacking companies Tyson and Cargill, and Bill Gates. Upside Foods owns a patent on the technology and Bill Gates has said that rich countries should transition to eating synthetic meat. 

Legislation against lab-grown meat gaining momentum

Fortunately, there is some good news for those alarmed by efforts to replace real animal meat with cell-cultivated “meat.” Although it is not yet available in supermarkets, legislation against the ersatz meat is being promoted in states seeking to protect their livestock-based agricultural industries. 

Alabama, Arizona, Florida, and Tennessee are seeking to ban the “meat” in their states, as reported by Wyatt Myskow and Lee Hedgepeth for Inside Climate News. Transgressors can be hit with penalties such as jail time, as well as fines and legal fees amounting to thousands of dollars.  

Laws addressing the use of the word meat have been passed in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Some have banned cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based food products from being labeled as meat. 

Alabama Representative Danny Crawford stated health issues and competition for the state’s farmers as his reasons for supporting the bill:

. . . Alabama Rep. Danny Crawford, who is carrying the bill in the body, told fellow lawmakers during that hearing that he’s concerned about two issues: health risks and competition for Alabama farmers.

“Lab-grown meat or whatever you want to call it—we’re not sure all of the long-term problems with that,” he said. “And it does compete with our farming industry.”

No lab meat for school kids

Two U.S. senators would also like to make sure that the lab-grown meat is kept out of children’s school lunches, FoodService Director senior editor Benit Gingeralla reports. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), have introduced “The School Lunch Integrity Act of 2024 would prevent lab-grown protein from being used in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.”

The U.S. Senators argue for the ban since no published guidance on the cell-cultivated product has been put out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). They also argue that there is insufficient proof that the lab-grown meat is safe.  

“Our students should not be test subjects for cell-cultivated ‘meat’ experiments,” said Rounds in a statement. “South Dakota farmers and ranchers work hard to produce high quality beef products. These products are often sold to South Dakota schools, where they provide necessary nutrition to our students. With high quality, local beef readily available for our students, there’s no reason to be serving fake, lab-grown meat products in the cafeteria. I’m pleased to introduce this bipartisan legislation that benefits South Dakota producers and protects students from the unknown effects of cell-cultivated ‘meat’ products.”

Fake meat beliefs

Proponents of faux meat believe that it is climate-friendly and slaughter-free. 

This Xtalks Food Industry Podcast, with Sydney Perelmutter, Ayesha Rashid, and Vera Kovacevic, questions the senators' motives for introducing the legislation. They discussed that the senators living in states with livestock-based agricultural industries was the real reason for proposing the legislation rather than true concern about children's school lunches. The likelihood of it being introduced into the school lunch program, Sydney points out, probably won't happen any time soon, since it's expected to be very expensive initially and school lunch programs work on a budget. 

However, Sydney makes the senators' point herself, stating that they might be correct in questioning the safety of the meat, since the FDA and USDA, despite approving the faux meat, have been known to be wrong in the past:

Sydney Perelmutter:

I'll point out, and it's probably no surprise that both of these senators are Republicans and I know that there's a little bit of a pushback in general on the Republican side and probably all sides to a certain extent with lab-grown meat. But I don't think they should be questioning whether it's safe because, like you said, Vera, it has gone through the FDA and the USDA, which have been wrong in the past so I can sort of see where they are coming from  . . . (edited for clarity)

Columnist and Twitter user Michael Grunwald also believes that lab-grown meat is slaughter-free and climate-friendly:

Kooky thinking

Is it reasonable to think that artificially growing something resembling meat is equivalent to meat from live animals, especially those allowed to graze and move around in the sun?

As ANH founder and Executive Director Rob Verkerk, PhD has said, 

“Creating a new food in a lab and expecting it to have the same impact on health as a form of eating that’s been with us since the dawn of our species could be regarded as an example of kooky thinking.” 

Check back as we take a close look at the differences between lab-grown and real meat in terms of its impact on the consumers' health, livestock, and the environment.