Slaughter-Free Meat Is An Answer To Our Cruel And Broken Food System

Slaughter-free meat is coming, and soon. San Francisco–based company Just — which already produces a range of eggless mayonnaise and eggless scramble — says it is planning to release a chicken product by the end of 2018. And the second-largest company in the field, Memphis Meats, which has produced slaughter-free meatballs and chicken strips, expects its first sales at high-end restaurants in 2019.

There are four main reasons people give for eating meat — the four N’s. It’s normal, natural (our ancestors ate it), necessary (a key component of human nutrition) and nice (it tastes good). Of these, normality is most important. As more people eat slaughter-free meat, it becomes more normal, which leads to more consumption, which leads to more normalization. The hardest part is creating the initial momentum and making sure the first product launches go smoothly. The next decade is crucial.

The last big challenge will be perceptions about the industry as a whole. And in particular, whether it is driven by ethics — as is the case with industry leaders I have interviewed — or profits. This is a big part of what went wrong with genetically modified foods, which, when they made their consumer debut in the 1990s were perceived by many as a dangerous technology being forced on people by large, opaque megacorporations like Monsanto. That rough takeoff led to massive backlash from environmental and health activists as well as the general public.

In the case of slaughter-free meat, activists like vegans and environmentalists have so far been the biggest proponents of the technology. But that might not last. It may well get taken over by the same kinds of large corporations, leading to public backlash.

The report by Jacy Reece on the Huffington Post continues here.