http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2008/04/landless-food-production-dawn-of.html - Landless Food Production: The Dawn Of Cultured Meat

The next generation will probably eat cultured meat without giving it a thought. But the idea of eating meat grown from a biopsy gives me the willies. Yet I do hate the animal cruelty of the modern farm system. Brain plonk.

1.  What's wrong with eating balanced proteins derived from rice and beans?

2.  "Eating meat" is not inevitable.

3.  Some people eating Vegan diets out of poverty may have a problem lacking some amino acids.  This is a problem with the cost of food, not an indictment of eating Vegan.

4.  Forecasting "population growth" has a long and poor history.  Using extremely long time-scales increases the distortion.

5.  Eating "cultured meat" might be a nice solution.  But it would have to be produced more cheaply than industrial farming.

> Yet I do hate the animal cruelty of the modern farm system.

So "grow your own". What I would dearly love to do is buy enough land to have some chickens, plant some veggies, and have a few pigs and maybe a cow or two.

> What's wrong with eating balanced proteins derived from rice and beans?

Eating balanced proteins is harder than diet for a small planet makes it seem. And not everyone can eat these foods safely.

> "Eating meat" is not inevitable.

OK then.

> Forecasting "population growth" has a long and poor history.

Population has certainly grown. What wasn't predicted is the concomitant growth in food production.

> So "grow your own"

Ever raised chickens etc? No thanks. The everyday reality is not quite as romantic as the back to the land vision.

I have a coworker who does raise his own chickens.  They're stinky, but I prefer his eggs vastly to what is in the store.  I haven't eaten one of his chickens yet, but I have an order in for a chicken in July.  Everyone here has said that his chickens taste a lot better than what we get at the store.

He's thinking of raising some turkeys next year.  If he does, I already have my order in for one of them.

> Ever raised chickens etc? No thanks.

My sister has chickens, but we only have a balcony so... tricky.

Yeah, I understand.  I'm in a 2nd floor apartment, myself.  I can't even pretend that the land I see when I look out the window is mine.

There's something very satisfying about sowing some seed, watching the first little shoots struggle through the earth, watching them grow into strong healthy plants and them chopping them up and eating them. Why should chickens and pigs be any different?

I'm clearly not a farmer.  I've never eaten an animal I've cared for.  I could if I had to, but would find it hard the first few times.

Those brutal farmers!

My funky little neighborhood has a little India area.  They have a shop where they kill chickens for you while you wait.

There is a stench when you walk by that is just incredible.

Animals smell very bad on the inside.  Most people don't want to deal with that.  Also, most hobby farmers ship their livestock out for slaughtering.

2037: celebrity meat is the new black.

wouldn't you pay extra for meat cultured from uma thurman's cells?

Animals don't smell bad at all unless you keep them in oppressive conditions.

Okaaaaaay -- where do YOU have your cows go to the bathroom?  Because cow poop stinks, and they really are too stupid to use a toilet.