Food Tech: The Future of Food

By Craig Ashton Jr., July 1, 2023

Would you eat meat cultured from animal cells? Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent approvals to produce lab-grown chicken. It appears that cellular agriculture is cultivating a new way to produce meat that does not require slaughter. Lab-grown meat is considered an innovative solution to climate change, antibiotic resistance, animal suffering, resource depletion, and infectious disease.

Factory farming is certainly not necessary to sustain human life. We can find other ways to sustain it. Should we be optimistic that synthetic animal protein will mitigate the ills we have created? Might it be less cruel and less destructive to our world than our current meat production?

There are sensible reasons to consider switching to cultivated meat, but is it the best way to practice good stewardship? The story of creation is important to me, and I try to align my ethics to it as best I can. In the beginning, animals were not created for food—they were not on the menu in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:29–30). Plant-based foods were provided for health and vitality. The ideal included eating nutritious food and tending the garden (seed & land) to allow both animals and people to flourish (Genesis 1:22–30). While there are plausible reasons to eat cultivated meat, such as its elimination of animal suffering, I think it merely paves another way to eat meat and thus does not suit God’s creation intentions for the world.

The creation story gives inherent value to living things (Genesis 1:20–22). The commercial and economic thinking that treats animals as products to be optimized as tasty morsels of food opposes the theology of blessing found in the creation story. I find that my choice to follow a whole-food, plant-based diet helps preserve my capacity for love and graciousness. I do not see animals as tasty morsels of food and have no interest in seeking to mimic the textures or flavors of meat. For me, eating meat disconnects me from the values I desire and seek to embrace. I favor a non-meat diet to promote not only the health and well-being of all creatures but also the theology of creation.

As a committed vegetarian, I am not interested in eating lab-grown meat. However, both plant-and cell-based proteins appear to be the future of meat production. Making meat without killing animals seems to be a preferable option to many because it does not require giving up meat altogether. Lab-grown meat could thus put an end to animal agriculture by replacing the demand for factory farms.

It seems that technology and the demand for sustainable food are rapidly converging to create a more sustainable and compassionate solution to the food crisis. I would not choose to consume lab-grown meat, but along with regenerative farming, is it a viable solution to the cruelty of animal farming for those who choose to eat meat?

This is a good time to consider the arguments regarding the environment, animal well-being, and our own health. Health remains a large reason I choose a vegetarian diet. Studies have consistently shown that the healthiest diets are predominantly plant based. I have thrived as a vegetarian for most of my life and feel obligated to share the benefits of a healthy, plant-based diet, especially one paired with avoidance of alcohol and smoking. Given my history of severe allergies, which rendered me unable to enjoy a normal childhood, I am greatly indebted to the lifestyle choices that have radically changed my health, giving me a new lease on life. What are your thoughts on plant-based and lab-grown meat? Will you eat lab-created meat when it hits the market?

Craig Ashton Jr.