This reading had a lot of interesting ideas and themes that categorize different roles humans have for animals and how these have changed over time with the development and sprawl of society. Scientific innovations and progressions have obviously affected animal’s roles as well. The most interesting of these for me is the idea of cloning and bioengineering. “Cloning, genome analysis and the bioengineering of modified animal’s breeds will generate cascading moral and legal debates about the definitions of “species” the ownership of species and the rights of genes.” This reminded me of the lab-grown burger which is the most recent innovation that has sparked international interest. If we are now able to create meat in a lab will this lessen our dependency on animals? How will the role of cattle and other raised animals for consumption change? Are there problems with lab-grown meat that have yet to be uncovered?
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/lab-grown-meat-here-will-vegetarians-eat-it-6C10830536
As the article states, the burger cost about $325,000 to create. The meat he created required calf blood product, so it’s not entirely animal independent. Even if it was, the price would have to go down to below the cost that it currently takes to make a regular hamburger before anything would change regarding animal consumption. It certainly is a possibility, but that would probably occur very far in the future.
I’m really glad you posted this article. It was interesting for me to see some different perspectives on this type of food source. as a personal preference, the thing that freaks me out about most meat nowadays is that it’s so full of antibiotics and preservatives and it’s created in such a disturbing way. The image of thousands of animals shoved into confined spaces and slaughtered is really unsettling. That being said, this bio-engineered meat gives me the same uncomfortable feeling. I think the problem overall with the US and meat consumption is how artificial it’s all become. I know a lot of people who will only eat locally farmed meats, and I think that’s the best change we could make to how we consume meat. I definitely think lab-grown meat would push us further away from the best way humans could be consuming meat. Thanks for sharing the interesting article!