Where do large animals fit into tomorrow’s society? It’s unclear as I watch Andras Forgacs’ September 2013 presentation on the website of TED, a nonprofit devoted to spreading big ideas.
Forgacs is the co-founder and CEO of Modern Meadow, a company developing novel biomaterials. In Forgacs’ presentation, he describes his company’s efforts to engineer tissue to become meat and leather, removing real animals from the process and requiring less use of land, water, energy and chemicals.
He says he initially thought the idea of engineering meat was crazy until he considered what we do now. Today, it takes 60 billion animals to provide the world’s population with meat, dairy, eggs and leather goods. By 2050, it will take 100 billion land animals, and maintaining this herd will take a huge, potentially unsustainable toll on the planet. This is the real craziness, he says.
I would agree. And I’m all for doing away with slaughter. The entire process is inhumane, from the animals’ living conditions to their trip to the slaughterhouse to the kill method, despite what proponents would have us believe. Would proponents want to die by having their throat slit while still alive and hanging upside down? OK, then. Let’s put that argument to rest for good.
I understand why cattlemen get upset at the idea of doing away with slaughter. This is the skill they learned growing up. What does the world do with ranchers whose products are no longer needed? What do ranchers do with their land? Their equipment?
But I can’t defend their position. Evolution rolls over many occupations. Once upon a time, there was a need for record stores.
What worries me most is whether “livestock,” and I hate that term, have a place in a future of engineered meat, a future likely to come true.
Cows and pigs are my bigger concern.
Horses can be ridden.
Sheep can be sheared.
In fact, there may be more room for both of those species, as well as alpacas and such.
What can we do with cows and pigs?
I guess we’ll have to wait to see if humans have big enough hearts to embrace cows and pigs as pets, as we now do with dogs and cats. I suspect miniatures will gain in numbers and the larger animals will have a lesser role. Likely, these animals will have to demonstrate new skills that make them attractive to humans as pets.
But they will live better and longer, and hopefully laws will protect them as companion animals, as they do dogs and cats today.
Whatever the role for large animals, let’s not forget these animals. Their time for emancipation has come, and they deserve better than they have received.
I look forward to the day when I don’t have to consider whether an animal died for a meal and I don’t have to read a statistic on how much food is thrown out every day, showing a complete lack of respect for the animals whose lives were sacrificed.
There is a better way.
Animals deserve it and our collective conscience demands it.