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United Kingdom Science

UK First European Country To Approve Lab-grown Meat, Starting With Pet Food (theguardian.com) 43

Lab-grown pet food is to hit UK shelves as Britain becomes the first country in Europe to approve cultivated meat. From a report: The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have approved the product from the company Meatly. It is thought there will be demand for cultivated pet food, as animal lovers face a dilemma about feeding their pets meat from slaughtered livestock.

Research suggests the pet food industry has a climate impact similar to that of the Philippines, the 13th most populous country in the world. A study by the University of Winchester found that 50% of surveyed pet owners would feed their pets cultivated meat, while 32% would eat it themselves. The Meatly product is cultivated chicken. It is made by taking a small sample from a chicken egg, cultivating it with vitamins and amino acids in a lab, then growing cells in a container similar to those in which beer is fermented. The result is a pate-like paste.

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UK First European Country To Approve Lab-grown Meat, Starting With Pet Food

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  • I wonder what the customer actually thinks [pinimg.com].

  • by Lavandera ( 7308312 ) on Wednesday July 17, 2024 @03:15PM (#64633485)

    Finally, thanks to Brexit, our Graces can feed plebes with whatever we like - unbound by those pesky EU food safety regulations...

    And our pet billionaires will be happy to share their profits with us...

  • The Animal and Plant Health Agency, you say? Perfect! Maybe they can figure out a way to get rid of the middle man, and modify our pets so they use chlorophyll and sunlight to make their own pet food. Of course, it would no longer be possible to blame the dog for those unexplained aromas. Rover would be taking in carbon dioxide at one end, and producing oxygen at the other. Or perhaps they could be slightly less radical, and make your pets actual vegans.

    Just think: your pet could take a leek right on

    • Here in the USA a young lady decided to make her cat a vegan.

      The cat died, when she discussed this with her vet, he instructed her that cats specifically cannot be vegetarians. their digestive tracts gather almost no nutrients from a strict vegan diet. She was very angry and stated that he was wrong...

      but the cat was still dead regardless of her feelings about it.

  • This is all she ever could have asked for, if she could speak!

  • by Tom ( 822 )

    as animal lovers face a dilemma about feeding their pets meat from slaughtered livestock.

    Nope, not at all. Can we at least qualify that with "some" ? As far as I understand, that's actually a small minority. Tiny even.

    Dogs eat pretty much everything, but cats are obligatory carnivores. They can't survive on a plant-based diet for long. Everyone who gets a cat knows that (if not, shame on you for not educating yourself before taking a pet). So at that point you need to make your ethical decision. Either you accept that your pet eats meat, or you get a different pet. It really is that simple.

    • My cats get meat-based food, because, well, when you slaughter an animal, in my opinion, it is your moral responsibility to make use of every part of the animal and not waste any part to the best of your ability, anything else is insulting to that animal's spirit. The animal made a sacrifice for you, you should respect that sacrifice.
      • by Tom ( 822 )

        Strictly speaking, the animal didn't make a sacrifice, because it didn't die voluntarily.

        But yes, I agree. When I cook, the cats get the pieces of meat that I cut away (and a bit more just because). Throwing out meat does feel wrong.

        • well, for me, strictly speaking, I don't believe in the existence of a 'spirit', but I do like the Native American philosophy which is where I got that tidbit from, so... I try to follow it as best I can. Our cats are also well fed when the wife or I are cooking because, well... it seems disrespectful to waste food in a world where some are hungry.
          • by Tom ( 822 )

            it seems disrespectful to waste food in a world where some are hungry.

            That, frankly speaking, is looking at it the wrong way around.

            Hunger is the natural result of a species population exceeding the ability of the environment to support its numbers. Followed by starvation, which brings the numbers back down to a sustainable level.

            The wrong in all of this is that we humans found ways to support our species well beyond the sustainable levels. We're the predators who hunt their prey to extinction until they themselves die out because there's none left. Except that our prey isn't

  • Title is factually wrong: cultivated meat is legal in Switzerland since 2023. Last time I checked a map Switzerland was more or less in the middle of Europe.
  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday July 18, 2024 @02:47AM (#64634497)

    Look at the ingredients of a typical can of dog food some time. The Beef variety will say in the fine print it's 80% meat of which 15% is beef. The Chicken will say in the fine print that it's 80% meat of which 15% is chicken. So it's same product regardless of what the label says. Maybe food colouring or some other simple recipe alteration will be applied to make it look slightly different to the human scooping it out of the can but it's the same.

    Offal, blood, skin and carcasses (chicken, beef, pig, fish, sheep, goat, horse, duck etc) go in one end, it becomes a meaty slurry which is turned into product. A byproduct of the food industry - stuff not fit for human consumption that becomes animal feed (including pets) or fertilizer. As disgusting as the input is to this system, it's meat and cheap and its what the majority consumers feed their pets. There are of course premium brands which are a bit more specific about the content of the cans but I suspect even these are using byproduct, just more selectively. e.g. maybe somebody feeds their dog premium food containing elk or bison but likely it's byproduct all the same.

    So I question who would buy lab grown meat. Maybe some vegans will pay a premium for something which is meat but isn't meat. Maybe it'll be better than whatever vegan garbage they're inflicting on their carnivorous pets right now. But that's a pretty niche market.

  • Because that's how you get a mad dog.
  • One more way for the food in Great Britain to be horrible.

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