Emerging Profiles for Cultured Meat: Ethics through and as Design

[IshaKeymaster]

What might a future with cultured meat look like? This paper shares that ethical questions surrounding cultured meat can be addressed through the design of systems.

[RebekahParticipant]

Summary written by Daisy Joo

Emerging Profiles for Cultured Meat; Ethics through and as Design by Cor van der Weele and Clemens Driessen
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According to the authors, supporters of cultured meat can be distinguished as those who see the future of cultured meat as a way to decrease animal cruelty (the “vegetarian” profile) and those who see it as as a solution to environmental sustainability and affordability (the “sustainable” profile). A third “moral profile” among other “possible future options,” according to the authors, also exist. In fact, the authors argue, an exploration of how cultured meat can both effect and affect our attitudes reveals a variety of possible relationships to meat as a foodstuff.
“Pig in the backyard,” the authors’ “third profile for cultured meat,” is an example of how to view a future of cultured meat aside from the “vegetarian” or “sustainable” modes. This third profile complicates the typical narratives of a future with cultured meat and suggests that it could be possible to have a pig in the backyard that provides the stem cells to be used to grow the owner’s meat for consumption. The idea was formulated at a workshop, where participants expressed an interest in cultured meat but also a hesitancy towards technologizing food.

The need to explore other ways to understand cultured meat stems from the authors historical argument that, in the past, the adoption of new and “better” technologies has been a far more dynamic process than simple acceptation. What is “better” is a question of ethics, and therefore, understanding a future with cultured meat, a new technology, should require philosophical analyses as much it requires data presenting probable environmental gains. The article presents one such philosophical means to analyzing ways in which we may move towards a future with cultured meat, based on the concept of “ethics through and as design,” and more radically suggests that discussing the concept of cultured meat itself can be as productive as a technological armsrace towards commercially-viable cultured meat production.

[Maya KaulParticipant]

I was thinking about the April Fool’s Day article about cultured meat in McNuggets, and it’s a little nutty, but it might not be the worst idea if a fast food place joined with cultured meat as a “health campaign”

Cultured meat has been called “fake” or “artificial,” but those arguments shouldn’t matter to the people who eat at fast food joints, since their food is very processed and full of chemicals, and cultured meat would be a step up. Because of this, it would be introduced into a population that would (hopefully) be more accepting of it, as well as being reliant on the fast food chains enough that they wouldn’t protest it too extensively (I don’t think). Meanwhile, the fast food crowd would definitely be extensive enough to introduce cultured meat into the mainstream.

Although it does align cultured meat with the “icky fast food” image, it would avoid the “freaky fad diet health nut” trend which, in my experience, tends to scare away middle and high school-age kids. As long as it were being introduced as what it is, then it might just change the negative feelings towards both fast food and cultured meat at the same time.

It’s far in the future, but maybe worth investigating and asking around about.

Thoughts?

[Author]

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