Introduction
Questions: Has the CDC started thinking about the potential of cultured meat to reduce of risk of pathogen transport across species?
Answer: Haven’t looked into it yet but when person tried to contact FDA- no response.
Fois Gras Question- Waiter offers. What question would you ask? Would you eat?
-Depends on if I’m on a company trip. Because it’s fancy- assumes its safe. Why is it free? This seems sketchy. Why are you offering it? What was the core animal?Sure person would eat.
-Host of questions about restaurant’s affiliations with source, process it made to get on the table. Would not eat because perosn does not like Fois Gras.
-What does waiter mean by cultured? Would not eat because person does not like Fois Gras.
-Is this sample cancerous? If meat is not a tumor- would eat.
-Could I have real Fois Gras instead? Person really likes real Fois Gras. Would not want to be a guinea pig.
-What’s today’s soup? Would not eat Fois Gras in any form. It’s disgusting- probably ethically. Might try if it wasn’t Fois Gras.
-Would be very curious because he likes Fois Gras. How does chef prepare it?
-Would be curious. Would want to try it immediately. Would maybe ask waiter how it was made.
Overview: Social implications of having cultured meat be ubiquitous in 2050.
-Is food for livestock is in livestock category? Answer: Yes.
-Do you know if impacts on other markets would be temporary or permanent? Answer: Hard question to answer. For example, land required to grow food for livestock might be transitioned for growing biofuel crops.
Question: You are a cultured meat designer. What kind of cultured meat would you design? What kind of cultured meat would you not want to have a part of?
-Better nutrition and drugs. Design meat for particular human genomes (similar to the way medicines are given to people based on their genotype). Because a highly reflexive system.
-Would make southern barbeque. Would have a significant social impact. Would not want to get into human meat market.
-Question: New technologies come down the road all the time. Manufactured food is readily available. We did not anticipate that this would have a large impact socially. How is possible cultured meat going to be different than twinkies?
-There is a visceral attachment to meat. Would the idea of being a predator be threatened.
-The things we consume that are meat are very produced- not natural no real connection to meat. People wouldn’t know the difference.
-All meat production depends on agricultural production process. A lot of demand for livestock would diminish. It would produce economic change.
-What about the parallel between the shift from horse to car.
-Our society has gone through many shifts in the agricultural market. Massive shifts in labor. Shifts wouldn’t be very different from what we’ve seen.
-Want to make meat look like vegetables. Wants to be creative- takes inspiration from Lady Gaga as a designer: Meat clothing, meat housing, etc.
-Person can’t imagine Europeans liking factory meat. Americans and Chinese will think its cool.
-People don’t want meat that looks like meat necessarily (we want it to appear sterile, wrapped in plastic, in the grocery store.
-We try to remove ourselves from the animal in American.
-Would increase the sugar in meat would sell well.
-Factory meat would facilitate (agricultural life) cycle management. Europeans wouldn’t like it.
-We wouldn’t have to ship animals anymore.
-It could become increasingly cheap. Could be an extremely attractive package. Are there any downsides?
-The yuck factor is important. People don’t like scientists playing God.
-There are identities associated with livestock growth-Cowboy
-Cowboy will be just a myth.
-Family farms are also a myth. They are economically impossible. Disappearance of family farms but no disappearance myth.
-Cowboy myth occurred after people weren’t cowboys.
-Will culture not change because we always have myths?
-World will be a hunter’s paradise back to the range because there will be a lot of feral animals.
-Regeneration of a different kind of landscape. Different than we’ve ever seen.
-Culture is constantly in flux. Stories in culture are incredibly stable. We create the romance of past lifestyles.
-If this gets crosswise with an important myth it will be in trouble. Example: GMO’s in Europe.
-People would be outraged if information about meat production were more public. Meat industry caused a lot of human injuries to workers in processing facilities.
-Culturally- we have a lot of unknowns in meat products. Consumers wouldn’t even notice a filler of cultured meat.
-People’s idea of meat wouldn’t be changed with invitro meat.
-People would miss the bones in meat. Hard to make steak.
-What is the vision? Sell to high quality market and have marbled and bones or would it go to nugget factories and third worlds?
-Is Food a stable market? What is food? We may have different ideas of what food is in the future.
-We don’t eat anything now that hasn’t been modified.
-Dispute: we eat things that aren’t modified. There is a substantial amount of food that is natural.
-We have no problem consuming foods that have no resemblance to natural food.
-What does “natural” mean?People think current domesticated animals are natural. Domesticated animals weren’t around naturally along time ago. A possible exception to this general rule is fish (aquaculture and AquAdvantage notwithstanding).
-We have already changed people’s diets to eat only a certain type of meat because of its easy production.
-McDonalds hamburgers have changed from an experience of something like food to being considered real food. Shifts in people’s diets have already happened.
-Was this when the topic of self-regulation came up? One person suggested that scuba diving is an interesting example of an industry(?) effectively self-regulating.[C1]
BREAK
Role Play:
1) Spokesperson of Greenpeace
Glad to be allowed into the United States. They still believe nature is sacred. Categories that have defined humans have been destroyed for profit by US. Boundaries between plants and animals have been erased wrongly. Reminds person of Monsanto. The fact that you are designing something is offensive. We can no longer talk about the world in any way- we can’t frame anything. Europe is the only ethical place. The reality of human happiness has been lost. You will not find happiness if you don’t go back to nature.
Question: How do you feel about cultured meat reducing the amount of land used for grazing?
Healthof humans and animals aren’t as important as the type lifestyles people lead. Person does not like the designed biology but is fine with slaughtering animals.
2) Military
Global security is complex. Change in gender balance[C2]. There is a vast number of unemployed subsistence farmers that form rebellions. Military is distancing itself from religious roots. We are involved in preventative medicine through cult. meat for troops. There is a black market for enchancedmilitary meals. Facing cyber-warfare to food chain.Looking to develop a transportation system equivalent to highway system exclusively for food transportation.Cannot talk about us using food as warfare “black ops”. There are more women in the force because women have better metabolism. We had special additives just for women. Is focus more on domestic than international? Greatest international threat is cyber terrorism. Increase in domestic rebellion is due to increasing social conflict and difference in religious and political view. There are talks of secession American politics has unraveled. The military are kept apart from popular culture. Designed American war fighters are greatest weapons.
Comment: human enhancement was seen in 2012 for sports figures and war fighters.
Do you design food and war fighters together? We have to manage fighters from cradle to grave due to threats of terrorism.
Out of character: We might be prohibiting military from entering normal society after they are permanently enhanced in the near future.
Question from religious leader: More and more of troops are refusing standard meal.
Response: it is vastly overstated. Some people are confused in their values but once they see the benefits of speed and other enhancements. Refusing to eat the military-issued meals gets weeded out because it is logical and in everyone’s best interest.
Comment out of character:
Are troops allowed to refuse enhancement? It was against the law to refuse anthrax vaccine.
To General: Do you have draftees or all voluntary force?
Response: 92% of troops have family members in military (hereditary military families). Only a small percentage of military come from ordinary society.
3) High end producer of grass fed meat
Cater to high- end chefs and stores. Use cruelty free slaughtering techniques. Goal: Restoring natural ecosystems. Any ecotourism? Yes. There are bird watching, horseback riding involved. Is food system more or less resilient? Access to real meat is important.
4) Religious leader.
Satan is happy to use any tool to undermine our systems. When we were kicked out of Eden Satan became free to come up with blocks to our salvation. Examples: abortion, any type of technology.
There has been an assault on faith-based communities by the US government.
Out of character comment: Religious identity reasons for with staining from certain types of food would probably remain.
Cult.meat could provide kosher pork. But would Jews eat it? Or is it more of an identity rather than health issue now?
Question to religious leader: Do you run any farms?
I don’t know
General topic: How is religion going to be used?
More and more people will result on faith- based logic. That is, as the world changes faster and faster and food becomes less and less a recognizable product, will some people revert to moral bases of “good” and “bad”?
5) Beings rights organization
Global alliance of Sentient beings
History shows that we are increasingly valuing life. It is inevitable that cultured meat will be used because we cannot go back in history. Example it would not be acceptable for anyone now to suggest child slavery or genocide (cultural ethics have a temporal quality). We are not against killing of animals necessarily. We are against killing animals when there are better options. We now have options and we don’t have to ignore animal torture anymore. Now that there is no reason for animal suffering, we will move on.
US is not signatory for the international covenant. US just does not ratify convenants.
Question: Does Americanobstinance to international law relate to thereluctance of Christianity to accept other beings as important.
-We think that US just wants to be exclusive even though they agree with ideas.
8) US representative of an opposing organization- Biopsies of animals that can’t consent is wrong
response: struggle is now to stop torture in general.
Question: Is it better to have fewer animals that are not killed than have more that are in pain
Response: No.
6) Lawyer
Copyright law wars are over now. Apple owns the only manufacturing company and manufactures iChops. Prohibited real meat sales from outside US Growth of meat cartels north of border for groups of us citizens who prefer real meat (illegal meat or “ill-meat”). Meat wars continue. President (Chelsea Clinton) has declared war on meat.
Question: What if someone filed a new patent for production of meat. Different from apple? If hired by apple we would bring the whole industry to hold up the patent in court for as long as possible. If hired for the person applying for a patent, would suggest moving to Canada and trying there.
Question: Virus has contaminated all products. Would you still try to demolish backyard meat production even though there is a 5% death probability?
Answer: Of course.
Comment:
Would there be a shift in the intellectual property laws? There could be process patents and not product patents. Genetic material could be patented. There could be disputes between what is a product and what is a process. Could patent bone in meat.
Might not require a change in intellectual property law.
We might have to rethink intellectual property of biological products.
This is a dual use technology. Could use tissue for other products used in transplanting or robotic uses.
Potentially use any type of biopsies. Possibly use celebrities for production of meat (or organs?). Example: Paris Hilton Burgers or, for that matter, Paris Hilton’s liver.
Aside:
We should research difference of food systems in the past and of today (particularly regarding resilience).
Vulnerabilities would be different: Supply chains are expensive to make resilient.
[C1]Added after I sent the notes to Jamey.
[C2]Most recuits are women.