bluuelight

I have a question for you, purely theoretical - considering that opposition towards the consumption of animals and animal products sometimes comes from an ethical objection (specifically the imposition of human will/life over an animal's), could the cultured meat products that may one day be available ever be considered truly veg*n when the cell lines needed to develop the cultured meats originally came from animal sources?

Oh, sorry, I was asking /u/dontbesuchajerk as I wanted to go off on my ethical debate tangent. So psyched that you guys are doing an AMA here though, lab-grown meat/culture is one of the most exciting biotech developments (to me) that we've had in past years, and I sincerely hope you get some more funding and government interest in your projects.

Of course, as I said I'm just going off on a thought tangent! Specifically, even if this technology develops to being independent of the use of FBA/FBS for culturing, I think the ethical contention may still arise that the cell line in the lab-grown meat still came from an animal originally - however far down the cell line you go, the original source was animal-based. Another user touched on this subject here which I'm really interested to see if the New Harvest guys respond (even if it's just to say that such a question is far too premature). As I say, I am just going off on a thought tangent here - it's not likely to ever be an actual debate for people to consider until the technology has left the research labs and become a real-world product. Which is a long, long way off. :) Thank you for your reply!