It is possible to grow meat in a lab, that is, to grow animal cells without using animals and turn them into something that humans can eat. However, the process is difficult and expensive. And at this point, lab-grown meat isn't commercially available, and it probably won't be for long if it ever becomes commercially available.
Still, if lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat, hits the market at a price that isn't exorbitant, chances are a good number of people will buy it. Some people do this for ethical reasons, not wanting to kill animals to decorate their dinner plates. Others believe that growing meat in a lab is less damaging to the environment than dedicating acres of land to grazing animals. And at the very least, lab-grown meat could eventually be cheaper than animal meat.
And if some people choose to consume lab-grown meat, why wouldn't they? It's a free country, right?
Unless people like Ron DeSantis can do what they want. DeSantis recently returned to the governorship of Florida after a dramatic failed presidential campaign and signed a bill banning the production and sale of artificial meat in the state. Similar bills are being considered in several states.
On one level, this could be seen as trivial talk, a crackdown on an industry that doesn't even exist yet. But Florida's new law highlights how crony capitalism, culture wars, conspiracy theorizing, and rejection of science have been integrated and brought together in a way that largely defines American conservatism today. Can you say it?
First, any claim that the right is a proponent of limited government is a lie. There is nothing more intrusive than a government having politicians tell them what they can and cannot eat.
Who is behind the ban? When a group of Texas ranchers sued Oprah Winfrey for costing them millions of dollars on a show warning about the dangers of mad cow disease Do you remember that? Today, it is hard to imagine that the meat industry is not influenced by concerns about losing market share to research meat. And such concerns about market share are not necessarily foolish. Let's take a look at the rise of plant-based milk, which accounted for 15% of the milk market in 2020.
But politicians who claim to worship free markets should firmly oppose any attempt to stifle innovation that could harm established interests, and this is exactly what they do. Why not?
Part of the answer, of course, is that many people have never truly believed in freedom, and it is only free for some. But beyond that, meat consumption, like almost everything else, is embroiled in a culture war.
If you've been following episodes of “The Simpsons,” the most avid source of social observation of our time, you probably saw this years ago. Back in 1995, when she decided to become a vegetarian, Lisa Simpson was forced to sit and watch a classroom video titled “Meat and You: Partners in Freedom.”
Sure enough, eating a lot of meat, or claiming to eat a lot of meat, has become a mark of right-wing allegiance, especially among the MAGA crowd. Donald Trump Jr. once tweeted, “I'm pretty sure he ate 4 pounds of red meat yesterday,” which is impossible for someone who isn't a wrestler.
But even if you're someone who claims that “real” Americans eat a lot of meat, why do we have to kill animals to provide meat when alternatives are available? Opponents of lab-grown meat love to talk about the industrial nature of cultured meat production, but what do they imagine many modern-day meat processing facilities to be like?
And then there are conspiracy theories. It's true that getting protein from beef produces far more greenhouse gas emissions than getting protein from other sources. It is also true that under President Biden, the United States has finally begun to seriously address climate change. But in the right-wing frenzy, which has recently become a sizable group of Republican commentators and politicians, opposition to Biden's very reasonable climate policies has led to the realization that Biden intended to impose restrictions on Americans. He has made a variety of outlandish claims, including: 'Consumption of hamburgers.
And have you heard about how the world's elites are trying to force us to start eating insects?
By the way, I'm not a vegetarian, so I have no intention of eating insects. But while I respect other people's choices, right-wing politicians increasingly don't.
And in addition to proving that many on the right are actually enemies rather than defenders of freedom, the lab meat story is yet another indication of the decline of American conservatism as a principled movement. There are two indicators.
Look, I'm not a supporter of Ronald Reagan, who I believe did a lot of harm as president, but at least Reaganism was about real policy issues like tax rates and regulation. However, those named as President Reagan's successors do not seem interested in making serious policy decisions. For many of them, politics is a kind of live-action role-play. It's not even about “owning” the people they call the elite. It's about constantly jousting with fantasy versions of what the elites supposedly want.
But while they may not care about reality, reality cares about them. Their deep-seated insincerity can, and has, caused tremendous damage to America and the world.
