It is possible to produce meat in a laboratory: growing animal cells without an animal and turning them into something people can eat. However, the process is difficult and expensive. At the moment, lab-grown meat is not commercially available, and probably won’t be for a long time, if ever.
Still, when lab-grown meat, also sometimes called cultured meat, hits the market at less than outrageous prices, a considerable number of people will surely buy it. Some will do it for ethical reasons, because they prefer that animals not be sacrificed to decorate their dishes. Others will do so in the belief that growing meat in laboratories harms the environment less than dedicating hectares and hectares to grazing animals. And it’s at least possible that lab-grown meat will end up cheaper than animal-derived meat.
And if some people decide to consume lab-grown meat, why not? It’s a free country, right? Not if people like Ron DeSantis get their way. Not long ago, DeSantis, back at work as governor of Florida after the spectacular failure of his presidential campaign, signed a bill banning the production or sale of lab-grown meat in his state. Similar legislation is being studied in several other states.
On the one hand, it could be considered an inconsequential story: repression against an industry that does not even exist yet. But Florida’s new law is a perfect example of how crony capitalism, culture war, conspiracy theories and rejection of science have merged (one might say amalgamated) in a way that largely defines the current American conservatism.
First, it debunks any claim that the right is the side that advocates for limited government; There is no government more intrusive than the one that dictates that politicians tell you what you can or cannot eat. Who is behind the ban? Remember when a group of Texas ranchers sued Oprah Winfrey over a show in which she warned about the risks of mad cow disease, which they say cost them millions? It is difficult to imagine that today the meat sector’s fear of losing market share to laboratory-grown meat is not having an influence. And that concern about market share isn’t necessarily foolish. Look at the rise of plant-based milk, which in 2020 represented 15% of the dairy market.
But politicians who claim to revere the free market should vehemently oppose any attempt to suppress innovation when it harms established interests, which is what this amounts to. Why do not they do it? Part of the answer, of course, is that many of them have never really believed in freedom, only freedom for some. Beyond that, though, meat eating, like almost everything else, has become embroiled in the culture wars. You could see it coming years ago if you followed the most scathing source of social observation of our times: episodes of The Simpsons. Back in 1995, Lisa Simpson, who had decided to become a vegetarian, was forced to watch a video titled “Meat and You: Partners in Freedom.”
Without a doubt, eating or saying that you eat a lot of meat has become a badge of loyalty for the right, especially among followers of “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA, for its acronym in English. Donald Trump Jr. once tweeted: “Pretty sure I ate five pounds of red meat yesterday,” unlikely for someone who is not a sumo wrestler. But even if you’re one of those who insist that “real” Americans eat a lot of meat, why should meat be obtained by killing animals if there is an alternative? Foes of lab-grown meat like to talk about the industrial aspect of cultured meat production, but what do you imagine many modern meat processing facilities look like?
And then there are the conspiracy theories. It’s a fact that getting protein from beef involves many more greenhouse gas emissions than getting it from other sources. It is also a fact that, during Joe Biden’s presidency, the United States has finally taken serious action against climate change. But in the feverish quagmire of the right, which these days constitutes a fairly sizable bloc of Republican analysts and politicians, opposition to Biden’s climate policy has given rise to an assortment of wild claims, including that Biden planned to draw limits to American hamburger consumption. And have you heard that the world’s elites are going to force us to start eating insects?
By the way, I am not a vegetarian nor do I intend to eat insects. But I respect the decisions of others, something that, increasingly, right-wing politicians do not do. And aside from demonstrating that many on the right are actually enemies, not defenders, of freedom, the story of laboratory meat is one more indicator of the decline of conservatism as a principled movement.
Look, I’m not a fan of Ronald Reagan, who I think did a lot of damage as president, but at least the Reaganism It addressed real political issues like tax rates and regulation. However, the people who call themselves Reagan’s successors do not seem interested in serious policy making. For many of them, politics is a live role-playing game. It is not even about “owning” those they call the elites; it’s about perpetually confronting a fantastical version of what the elites supposedly want. But, even if they don’t care about reality, reality does care about them. His extraordinary lack of seriousness can do great harm to the United States and the world.
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