Lab-grown meat, sometimes referred to as cultured meat, carries several potential risks. Food safety concerns include possible contamination during production and unknown long-term health effects of consuming lab-grown products and the use of antibiotics in cell culture raises the risk of contributing to antibiotic resistance.
That’s not going to stop Democrats, with their obsession with eating bugs and growing fake meat, from foisting the fake meat onto our military, however.
The Daily Caller reports that the White House intends to once again use the troops as test subjects for a controversial item. This time literally force feeding it to them.
BioMADE, a Pentagon funded company, proposed a plan to reduce the Military’s carbon footprint by feeding active members lab-grown meat, according to their project call release in May. BioMADE has received over $500 million in funding from the Department of Defense (DOD), according to the Washington Free Beacon. Several veterans told the Caller the proposal is indicative of the Pentagon viewing troops as “lab-rats.”
“I think the government should focus on letting the military protect our nation from enemies, foreign and domestic, sometimes, but you know, that’s what the military is there for,” Martin Bailey, a former U.S. Special Forces member, told the Caller. “They’re not there to be experimental lab-rats.”
Lab-grown meat, or “cell-based meat,” is still in an experimental phase of development, only having received initial government approval for sale last year. The “meat” grown in a lab is composed of animal cells and added chemicals that aim to aid in the manufacturing of meat without animals being slaughtered, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
One veteran raised concerns about troops’ willingness to test the new dishes, pointing to previous experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a large number of active reserve guard members who are still a little jaded from the COVID shot and are very unwilling to be part of the new experiment,” Tim W., a former Navy Seal of 22 years, told the Caller.
Like many of the things liberals push in the name of climate change, however, lab-grown meat will likely have a negative impact on the environment.
University of Calfornia-Davis recently revealed a study that said, “lab-grown meat, which is cultured from animal cells, is often thought to be more environmentally friendly than beef because it’s predicted to need less land, water and greenhouse gases than raising cattle. But in a preprint, not yet peer-reviewed, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that lab-grown or “cultivated” meat’s environmental impact is likely to be “orders of magnitude” higher than retail beef based on current and near-term production methods.
Researchers conducted a life-cycle assessment of the energy needed and greenhouse gases emitted in all stages of production and compared that with beef. One of the current challenges with lab-grown meat is the use of highly refined or purified growth media, the ingredients needed to help animal cells multiply. Currently, this method is similar to the biotechnology used to make pharmaceuticals. This sets up a critical question for cultured meat production: Is it a pharmaceutical product or a food product?
‘If companies are having to purify growth media to pharmaceutical levels, it uses more resources, which then increases global warming potential,” said lead author and doctoral graduate Derrick Risner, UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. “If this product continues to be produced using the “pharma” approach, it’s going to be worse for the environment and more expensive than conventional beef production.’
The scientists defined the global warming potential as the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted for each kilogram of meat produced. The study found that the global warming potential of lab-based meat using these purified media is four to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.”
