this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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Futurology

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I culture cells for a living. Not that these are the only ways, but the most common and effective ways to grow cells in the lab is to add either FBS (fetal bovine serum) or BSA (bovine serum albumin) to the culture media. Currently we don't mass produce BSA in an animal free manner and FBS is by nature an animal product. Granted, that the products of one animal may in fact allow manufacturers produce more than enough 'animal-free meat' to overcome this but I haven't seen any numbers. I'm interested in hearing more about these techniques going forward and in determining if animal-free products can really be produced animal free.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Do you use Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) to make your meat?

No, for a simple reason: we’re committed to making meat without causing any harm at all to animals. So we’ve developed a production process that doesn’t require FBS.

That's what they say.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Where did you read this? Could you link a source please?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

A man of culture I see

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I culture cells for a living.

Relatable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

What if it requires 1/1000th the number of animals … but each one suffers a hundred times more?

Would it be worth it?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How do you quantify suffering?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If you don’t have a way of quantifying suffering, perhaps all utilitarian calculus is bunk?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Unfortunately, I don't really understand your response.

You talked about one hundred times the suffering. What does that mean? To me, the way animals are held in mass production is completely unethical and there is no way to make it worse... So how do you make the animals suffer even more?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

stem cells can suffer? this isn't cloning an animal, it's cloning certain tissues.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Hence the word “if” here. A hypothetical scenario.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From a utilitarian perspective, you're still reducing overall suffering by an order of magnitude, so your scenario is still a greater good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

This assumes a linear value function of course

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I culture cells for a living.

Sorry, this is all my addled GenX brain could think of when I read that.

https://youtu.be/GIuZSaqse-A

😁