New Website: Why Cultured Meat?
Posted by Why Cultured Meat on Aug 16, 2008 · Member since Aug 2008 · 8 posts
Hi everyone,
There is a new website, a very important one to my mind: www.WhyCulturedMeat.org
As you can read in the "About Us" section of the site, the activists behind this website (I'm one of them) decided to change direction and are now focusing in the promotion of cultured meat.
For those of you who are familiar with a more veteran site (created by some other activist), www.SupportCulturedMeat.org, the new website is targeted more to abolitionist activists.
As for now, there are 2 main pages in the site:
1. Factors (activists should consider when choosing a path)
2. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
I encourage every activist to visit the site, I think its material is fascinating.
Thanks.
OK--I totally had to find out what "cultured meat" is--I have heard about it, but wasn't sure if that is what your site was specifically talking about--anyways, I'm posting this blip about what "Cultured meat" is in case anyone else wasn't sure--
"In-Vitro meat ("Cultured Meat") is the manufacturing of meat products through "tissue-engineering" technology. Cultured meat (= in-vitro meat) could have financial, health, animal welfare and environmental advantages over traditional meat. The idea: To produce animal meat, simply without using an animal. Starting cells are taken painlessly from live animals, they are put into a culture media where they start to proliferate and grow, independently from the animal. Theoretically, this process would be efficient enough to supply the global demand for meat. All this would happen without any genetic manipulation, i.e. without the need to interfere with the cells’ genetic sequences."
This is from http://www.futurefood.org/in-vitro-meat/index_en.php
OK--so I'm not posting my opinion of this because I don'treally think that is what this thread is for--but if a debate thread happens to come up I'll be sure to post in it.
reminds me of kombucha. grow my pretty!!!
I will be glad to hear opinions.
What I want to emphasize is that our decision to change direction came after years of vegan education.
Our group breath, think and live Animal Rights.
"There is no doubt the development of cultured meat will not be a fully ethical process (at least in the beginning) because most of the scientists involved are not doing it from the right reasons but from environmental reasons. Let us hope that as more animal-rights people get involved in this process, the less immoral it will become."
i think thats an interesting way to look at it. we should get involved while this is being developed to make sure that the animals involved are not being mistreated. its always best to get involved when things are developing rather than way after the fact, after animals are starting to get exploited. im guessing animals are being exploited already, but if we get involved, it might lessen the blow towards animals.
i still think its gross. i can't imagine people wanting to eat this.... but i dont understand why people eat regular meat.... ha. theyre both gross. people are weird.
i vaguely remember there being a discussion about this before.
I have some constructive feedback about your website, if you don't mind.
Regardless of the target audience, do you think it's effective to have as main points statements like "Most people are brain dead," "Most people don't care" and "Humans are inherently selfish?" Once I see language like that I lose all interest in the information presented, regardless of whether or not I agree with it. I'm not sure how such language is productive toward advancing your aim. That is the type of attitude that makes people antagonistic or defensive toward or veganism as a movement. :-\
Just my first impressions! Thanks for the info.
Hi KissMeKate, thanks for the feedback.
I would have agreed with you if the site was targeted for the public, but it is targeted for activists and for activists only.
Even more specifically, for people who have long experience with trying to educate people to Animal Rights.
The quotes you mentioned are reality in our minds.
By the way, Howard Llyman also uses the term "brain dead" in his speeches to activists.
If someone is interested in more info, he can visit the sites in our links page.
I realize that. I am an activist and I reacted negatively to it. 's all I'm saying. :)
When I lived in Humboldt, I worked with a person from Earth First. I don't think anyone can argue that they aren't bold activists, vocalizing their beliefs and putting their bodies on the line. When I was there, Gypsy died for his beliefs. Even then, they made a point to be positive about the change they wanted to see. During outreach, if someone went the angry route they were replaced with someone who was positive to give the angry person time to recharge.
Side thought of mine: If most people are "brain dead," then they won't get it no matter what you do - which, if true, make the effort purposeless. If you believe in the effort then you have to believe in the people you are making the effort to deliver the message to.
I actually think that cultured meat is a pretty neat idea because I believe the reality is the vast majority of the population are never going to give up their meat.
However, I had the same reaction that KMK had and I echo her sentiments.
We do believe most people are "brain dead" and the path we chose takes this into consideration.
I don't think our effort is purposeless because it does not depends on the public to deliver the message but rather on technology and research. Our petition to other activists is an attempt to speed up the process.
As for being positive, we do not choose the truth, what we express in our site is what reality looks like. Other activists will not choose our path (I say that from my experience over the last few months) if we will not "challenge" them with the negative reality.
Okay. Well, the Factors read like they were written by an angsty 22-year-old college student.
You mentioned that the site was to be used by other activists. The answer to "How can I help to promote cultured meat" is that the, "research desperately needs researches and funding." Most people aren't in a position to do the research and don't have a significant amount of extra money. How do you hope advocates utilize your site in other ways?
WCM--I went back and re-read your original post.
I thought you were asking for feedback on the format of your revised site, but I see it was an FYI and you weren't asking for our opinions. My mistake!
Thanks for everyone who shared their opinion.
Regarding "How do you hope advocates utilize your site in other ways?":
First and foremost, we hope activists will reconsider their stance on the issue and hopefully will get to the same conclusions we did.
If this happens, we hope that they will use their skills to promote the research of cultured meat.
The recommended move will be to contact Jason Matheny (a vegan) from New Harvest and ask him how one can help.
Regarding the language used in our site, we realize it may cause negative affects outside our community but we also think (at least most of us) that in order to convince our target (mostly, experienced activists who because of what they have been through over the years may identify with our view), it is better to use a straightforward-honest language. We believe 10 convinced activists are worth the amount of potential negativity. Of course, we may be wrong. If someone want to suggest us a different way of saying it, we are always ready to listen.
I agree w/ HH in how it was written....You need to get someone who knows grammar to go over with a fine toothed comb and correct or make suggestions in how to correct the errors that I saw. For a fee, I'll do it, and will even work in some of my creative/persuasive writing skills I picked up along the way. But I won't work for free. Sorry.
OK, thanks for this tip.
I will find someone who will do the grammar.
(if by chance someone here want to do it, we will appreciate it)
Is meat vegan? Cultured or not? VW is a veg*n website. Just saying.
i think a problem with this is that normal people that are interested cant get involved with cultured meat. if more ethically minded indivisuals could get a hand i helping to get this going while making sure that the animals involved arent abused in the process, it woulds happen alot faster and they could spread the word about the culturedmeat. PETA thinks this can be done in 4 years. if more people got involved and could help, it would be even faster. i want to help, but how could I? thats the issue, people think they cant help.
Hi, in order to help, the best way is to contact Jason Mathney (a vegan) from www.New-Harvest.org and ask him, and also www.FutureFood.org portal.
As it says in our site ( www.WhyCulturedMeat.org ), what is needed most is researchers and funding. I can tell you that few fellow activists are going to study biochemistry in university in order to help the research.
If you want to be added to a mailing list of activists who support it, please send a request to WhyCulturedMeat gmail com.
In http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/H6PLUB you can vote for bilologist who entered a context in which its cultured meat project can get funds. It is important to vote and even leave a positive comment.
If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. Thanks.
Is meat vegan? Cultured or not? VW is a veg*n website. Just saying.
Zing!
Thank you.
I don't know how I feel about cultured meat. For the people who are going to eat it anyway, the question is: does cultured meat reduce overall suffering? I don't know.
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