Mrs and I tried lab grown fois gras quail, apparently the first in Australia. Amazing to be able to buy this in a restaurant, after hearing about it year after year.
It was certainly meaty, a flavour you simply don’t get with any meat-free chicken, really pungent and distinct (not that I’ve ever had dead quail).
A place called Bottarga in Brighton, Melbourne. Wasn’t cheap, but I’d pay top dollar to support the transition.
I’ve always been curious on the vegan perspective on lab grown meat. I’m sure it’s not a monolith but is there a general consensus?
Lab grown meat is not tied with suffering so it’s definitely vegan in my book.
Opinion:
Chewing on lab grown tissue is not something I’m looking forward to. I don’t need it in my life, I’ll stay plant based. If it replaces a dead animal I’m fine with it. But I doubt it will. I feel like lab-grown meat is like hydrogen for Big Oil:
A thing that they’re working on, it will be great in the future. But until then, we can continue burning oil/eating meat.
Social level opinion: While I hope it is successful in making cruelty free living more accessible, I hate what lab grown meat represents, and I hate the idea that human beings are so self-centered that the only way they would give up meat as if someone else made an exactly perfect replication of it. I also unfortunately do not think it’s going to succeed, because even today if you served somebody a bunch of different burgers made from different animal meats, and in there you also included a beyond burger, I doubt that person could identify which one was vegan, unless they are some kind of meat connoisseur. So why wouldn’t I expect people to just convince themselves that whatever imperfections are going to be in the lab grown meat are a dealbreaker?
Practical personal level opinion: I wouldn’t have a problem with lab grown burgers, hot dogs, and most sausages. To me these are basically just “processed protein tubes and patties”. And if that’s what the party was grilling then i won’t complain. But I also think that if I’m at the grocery store and that’s what I want to eat that week, I’m really just gonna care about the sustainability and the price to quality ratio more than anything. Now if it’s just a cut of meat on the other hand with gristle, connective tissue, a grain, that just skeeves me out. But I wouldn’t say it offends my morals or anything, just seems kind of grotesquely self-indulgent and offputting