Would you go back to eating meat if no animals had to die for it?
It sounds like sci-fi, but there was an article in the July/Aug issue of Vegetarian Times that discussed a method developed by a vegetarian doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland. Using three muscle cells taken from a live cow (by needle) and nourishing them in the lab in a broth of glucose, amino acids and minerals, he has been able to encourage them to reproduce. After a few weeks, a sheet of the meat can be peeled off and ground up into hamburger. Growing meat this way could conceivably put a dent in factory farming and reduce the number of animals slaughtered every year. It’s also purported to be safer because there’s no “need” to treat the animal with antibiotics, steroids and hormones and it could eliminate the threat of mad cow disease. So… would you go back to eating meat if no animals had to die for it? Or are your other reasons for going veg compelling enough to keep you veg?
Thank SO much for all the sarcastic, rude answers. This is the *vegetarian* section, not the *insult vegetarians* section and this is a serious question. I'd like to know what actual vegetarians think about this.
To ebenevides: I agree personally that it doesn't sound appealing. Since you listed peta's website as a source, I thought you might be interested to know that Ingrid Newkirk has called it "one of the most exciting developments ever."