Sherry F. Colb: Vegan Food, Cultured Meat, and How to Change Hearts and Minds
Folks who feel attached to meat might believe that it tastes better when it comes from the slaughterhouse. That is not a reason to give up, but it may be a reason to actually tell people the moral basis for veganism.
SHERRY F. COLB: An old friend of my daughter’s, whom I would describe as a meataholic, loved a particular brand of vegan chicken tenders. She said it was just like real chicken but even tastier. So flavor and texture are an important part of being identical. No one is going to experience a turnip as identical to a hamburger. But now that we have so many vegan versions of just about every type of animal food, why isn’t my daughter’s old friend vegan? I have not seen her in a while, so I am uncomfortable confronting her with this question. I would guess, however, that she enjoys the idea of what she is eating: an actual chicken, meat from an actual cow or pig, cheese made from cow’s milk, etc.
It isn’t that she is a sadist and likes to imagine the suffering and slaughter of the animals she consumes. She has just, for all of her life, thought of the foods she loves as coming from animals. There’s a wholesomeness (however counterfeit) in that thought. Though she might enjoy the flavor and texture of a vegan product, she eventually wants what she is used to eating, and that includes the knowledge that what she is eating is the flesh of a real animal. She feels connected to the “genuine” experience of consuming animal products.
Why do I dwell on this hypothetical reason my daughter’s old friend might have for wanting to eat meat notwithstanding the vegan alternatives? Because if I am correct, it means that part of what people don’t want to “give up” in eating meat has nothing to do with what is actually in front of them on the plate. It is a thought, a flight of imagination… The experience reflects not only the facts of what one is consuming but also one’s imagination. Just consider how you would feel if you were eating something that you considered delicious only to learn that it was actually the meat of a beagle. If you are like most people, your face would suddenly reflect disgust. Identity is in part in the mind of the beholder.
Take a consumer who enjoys “real” animal meat best even if he acknowledges that Beyond Meat is fantastic and very similar. That consumer continues to eat animal products most days notwithstanding the availability of alternatives. Now what happens when… we approach this consumer with cultured meat and says “here, this is real meat from a real animal.” The consumer might ask “what’s so great about this meat?” And we would have to tell him that this meat originates with a biopsy taken from an animal (a pig, a cow, a chicken) and then cultured in the laboratory and grown into meat…
The consumer might well find the prospect of eating cells grown from a biopsy in the laboratory far less appetizing than vegan chicken tenders. But what if it tastes the same as meat from a slaughtered animal? “The same” is again a tricky concept. If you are thinking “this came from a biopsy on a cow followed by a cell culture in a laboratory,” you might have a very different experience of the food than you would in eating a conventional burger. Purveyors of the latter have succeeded in creating a positive feeling about their product, despite the reality of the slaughterhouse.
I do not mean to suggest that cultured meat will not take off. It might, and if it does, it could spare billions of animals lives of misery and pain followed by grotesque and terrifying deaths. And if it is cheaper than meat from the slaughterhouse and objectively tastes the same or better, it could spell a major shift away from conventional meat. But putting a tremendous amount of into cultured meat because of the “identity” between cultured and slaughter-based meat, it may be in for a rude awakening…
A study showed that wine drinkers say that the same wine tastes better when they believe it is expensive than when they think it is cheap. Similarly, folks who feel attached to steak, chicken, fish, cheese, and eggs might believe that their food tastes better when it comes from the slaughterhouse. That is not a reason to give up, but it may be a reason to actually tell people… the moral basis for veganism.
It is the reason why many of us have chosen to distance ourselves from the slaughterhouse. Morality may yet have a role to play in the battle to fight climate change and pandemics and to protect defenseless animals from being isolated from their loved ones, physically injured, terrified, and finally subjected to a horrific death. Vegan chicken tenders might taste that much better when we imagine roosters and hens living their lives in safety and peace, miles away from any slaughterhouse. SOURCE…
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