New Harvest Update from Jason Matheny Tuesday, Feb 9 2010
animal rights 8:28 pm
I am subscribed to the New Harvest mailing list, where I get email updates from Jason Matheny, the founder of the organization. For those not familiar with New Harvest, here is the summary:
New Harvest is a nonprofit research organization working to develop new meat substitutes, including cultured meat — meat produced in vitro, in a cell culture, rather than from an animal.
Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting, and more humane than conventional meat.
Here is the recent email I received from New Harvest:
Since our last update, these stories appeared:
Scientists turn stem cells into pork (Associated Press)
Meet the new meat: Tissue engineered skeletal muscle (Trends in Food Science & Technology)
In vitro meat’s evolution (LA Times)
Culturing Meat For The Future
Why Kill-Free Meat Will Rock Your World (Huffington Post)
Is Vat-Grown Meat Kosher? (io9)Best wishes,
Jason Matheny
You’ll notice that one of the stories is by Jason Silva, a transhumanist/immortalist with a show on Current TV with his co-host Max. It is transhumanists’ obligation to demonstrate compassion for other animals. After all, most of us expect compassion from posthumans, don’t we? Supporting the cause of in vitro meat is a powerful way to demonstrate that compassion.

February 9th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
If meat can be grown in Vivo,why not rice,corn?
February 9th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
A quote from Heloise Chin, the protagonist of my scifi novel Hel’s Bet, and a hardcore veggie:
“I’d rather smash a cathedral than kill an animal just to eat its muscles. Why break the most miraculous things on Earth for a snack? Unnecessary. Unkind.”
She smiles carnivorously. “Besides, I’m trying to set the Singularity a good example by not devouring primitive sentient life forms.”