Any politician who claims to care about animal welfare should support increased federal funding for cultivated-meat research. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. It has the potential to relegate so much nonhuman suffering to a less enlightened past.
We kill more than a trillion aquatic and land animals for food every year. Numbers that large are almost impossible to comprehend. For a little perspective, only about 117 billion humans have ever lived, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
While cultivated meat was recently approved for sale in America, increased public money for cellular-agriculture development will help the product achieve price parity with slaughtered meat. This is crucial for widespread acceptance of humane alternatives. Compassionate legislators should support the effort.
Jon Hochschartner
Granby, CT