Remarkable changes will keep coming. Here's Virginia Postrel in the WSJ on how changes in the food supply might influence both repugnance towards meat eating and towards technology:
Synthetic Meat Will Change the Ethics of Eating. Consumers will soon be able to dine on chicken and other animal proteins grown in a factory, upending the way we think about nature and technology By Virginia Postrel
"Most Americans aren’t about to give up chicken, but we’d rather not dwell on where it comes from. In the not-too-distant future, however, the trade-off between conscience—or ick factors—and appetite may no longer be relevant. Instead of slaughtering animals, we’ll get our meat from cells grown in brewery-like vats, with no blood and guts. In November, that science-fiction vision came a crucial step closer to reality when the Food and Drug Administration gave its OK to the slaughter-free chicken from Upside Foods, a San Francisco-based startup originally known as Memphis Meats. The company must still work with the Agriculture Department to establish inspection procedures and win labeling approval. It plans to first offer the meat to high-end restaurants.
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"Synbio executives talk like animal lovers and environmental activists. But synbio is still a form of engineering, a science of the artificial. As such, its ethical appeal represents a significant cultural shift. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, businesses large and small have emerged from the conviction that “natural” foods, fibers, cosmetics, and other products are better for people and the planet. It’s an attitude that harks back to the 18th- and 19th-century Romantics: The natural is safe and pure, authentic and virtuous. The artificial is tainted and deceptive, a dangerous fake. Gory details aside, the “factory” in factory farming makes it sound inherently bad.
"Synthetic biology upends those assumptions, raising environmental and ethical standards by making them easier and more enjoyable to achieve."
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Some commentators on her WSJ article criticized it as "woke propaganda."
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