Abstract
As we become more aware of the various problems associated with technologically mediated meat production (e.g., the lives of the animals, the human health effects of consuming meat, the ecological impacts of large-scale animal farming), we also confront a variety of technologically mediated potential fixes (e.g., in vitro meat technologies). Rather than comparing bad and good technologies in the context of meat, I want instead to explore the dynamics of the human-animal relationships expressed within specific approaches. This method, I suggest, illustrates the technological aspects of the relationships, which reflect an orientation to the world (in the form of the animal body and the surrounding ecologies) that mediates human interaction with the environment. It also helps to show that the more we try to take responsibility for those bodies—in terms of knowledge, in terms of energy—the more we require the environment to reflect our conditions and the less tolerant we become of failure.
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Notes
Radical here is meant to describe the specific approach to cultivating meat, not the general attitude toward technological salvation which reflects a kind of ecological modernization.
While the present approach to in vitro meat reflects more recent advances in tissue culture and experiments with stem cells, the idea of growing meat without the animal has a longer history. Scientific experimentation with chicken heart tissue conducted by Alexi Carrell (see Jiang 2012) led to boosterism (Churchill 1931) and trepidation (Oboler 1937; Pohl and Kornbluth 1969).
That medium currently involves fetal bovine serum, which does not escape the need for animal bodies in a continual phase of the process. But efforts to engineer a viable, vegetable based derivate for that medium are ongoing.
Those versed in sci-fi may be familiar with Terry Bisson's short story, "They're Made Out of Meat" (Bisson 1991), or Michel Faber's novel, Under the Skin (2000), both of which point out that, well, humans are made of meat, which could be cultivated in the same process. Not so rare, but certainly exotic.
It remains to be seen, in the age of terroir and other forms of specified or place-based food appreciation, whether this technology would seek to erase animal origins, or create quality lines associated with especially desirable animals.
Critiques about the size of the award not even approaching the cost of the research (Engber 2008). The contest recently expired without a winner, though PETA sees big positive strides being taken ("PETA's ‘In Vitro'…" 2014).
Heidegger's view of technology, especially in its relationship to Being, is not beyond critique. For example, Verbeek (2005) offers a useful analysis of the limitations of Heidegger's nostalgia for a more pure form of relationship.
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Galusky, W. Technology as Responsibility: Failure, Food Animals, and Lab-grown Meat. J Agric Environ Ethics 27, 931–948 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-014-9508-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-014-9508-9