OPINION: Stop Causing Needless Deaths From Slaughter Of Fish, Cows, Other Land Animals: Support Cultivated Meat That’s As Good As The Real Thing – Without Cruelty

Humans kill more than a trillion aquatic and land animals every year for food.

The amount of suffering this represents is impossible to comprehend. To put it in a little bit of perspective, only about 117 billion humans have ever lived, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

Our political leaders can help create a better world by supporting increased public funding for cultivated-meat research.

For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter.

I was interested to learn the publication China Weekly is following recent efforts by American politicians to hinder the development of cultivated meat.

China has invested heavily in the nascent industry. The publication suggested efforts, such as those of Florida’s legislature, to ban the new protein would strengthen China’s position.

Instead of standing in the way of progress, American politicians should be leading it. Cultivated meat faces a number of technological hurdles.

Perhaps the most important of these is that it is currently too expensive to mass produce. This can be overcome with increased federal funding for cultivated-meat research. Politicians who care about the national interest should help advance cellular agriculture.

Banner Image: Laboratory. Image Credit – DarkoStojanovic