A leading pro-meat publication has criticized clean meat – saying it has a ‘dark side’.
Clean meat – known as lab, bio, or cultured meat – is built using animal cells. Some scientists also use foetal blood plasma harvested from unborn calves (though some brands say they have developed technology to avoid this).
Clean meat is therefore not vegan, though some vegans choose to support the concept, as it has the potential to reduce the number of animals slaughtered for food.
It is also a more environmentally-friendly option than traditional livestock farming. In addition, meat grown in sterile lab conditions does not require massive amounts of antibiotics – which are used at scale in intensive farms.
Franken-meat
The article in Beef Central – titled The Darker Side Of Lab Grown Meat – refers to the product as ‘fake, test-tube, synthetic and Franken’ meat, and references the massive amount of investor funding and media attention it has been gaining recently.
According to the piece, reports about clean meat usually claim no animals are hurt in the process. (Please see above. When reporting on clean meat, PBN always states the product is not vegan).
The article says that withholding this information from consumers means they cannot make a balanced judgement about the product.
It concludes: “So much for mortality-free lab grown meat production.”