Otherwise, the risk is a publicity fiasco akin to the one that smeared GMO crops. To succeed, cultured meat needs to be publicly accepted and perceived as a good, healthy and “natural” option, not as a lab-grown, sci-fi and artificial abomination. The study highlighted an important issue and hinted at a possible solution. This hybrid process, which combines rural traditions and advanced technology, thrilled the participants in the focus groups, especially those who previously expressed doubts about cultured meat’s unnaturalness. Nevertheless, a small number of farmers may still be key to pave the way for the public acceptance of cultured meat.Ĭor van der Weele, a philosophy professor at the University of Wageningen, has been studying the cultural and social impact of cultured meat for years and her most recent research project tackles precisely how cultured meat can be an opportunity, rather than a threat, for farmers.ĭuring a focus group conducted for a study she co-authored with Clemens Driessens, participants were asked to express their thoughts and feelings about a meat production scenario called “the pig in the backyard.” In this speculative production scenario, cultured meat is made in small, local factories using cells from animals kept in small yards. Yes, if alternative meat technologies take hold, the farming industry will probably collapse, factory farming will disappear and extensive farming will provide negligible amounts of food. Thing is farmers are still likely to play a crucial role in the future of food.
On the other hand, one of the documentary’s main limits is failing to recognize the pitfalls of this uncompromising approach. On the one hand, it’s admirable how Apocalypse Cow decided to focus his critique on extensive farming, a practice that it’s usually perceived as more sustainable than intensive farming but, under many counts, may be equally, if not more, environmentally damaging. “It’s time to throw away our storybook view of farming and turn to something that looks like science fiction,” he urges, hinting at cultured meat and similar technologies. Think about that the next time you tuck into a steak.Predictably, the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales (NFU) reacted pointing out that “farming is not just an industry it’s the lifeblood of Britain’s rural heritage.” But Monbiot has no doubts. Its mind and tip down our own trouser leg. The key to creating an alternative world is that it has to be believable - on another variant of Earth, there might be some unusual goings-on, but you still recognize that it is Earth.Īpocalypse Cow has stayed true to that - the world it portrays is so slightly removed from our own that it could almost be teetering on the crotch of time, threatening at any moment to change Imaginative powers that he was able to do so, and serendipitously, to come up with one of the best bovine puns in literary - or should that be cinematic? - history. I hadn't considered the possibility of a world in which cows became ruthless, libidinous killers, but it is a tribute to Michael Logan's I was looking for books set at any time, in any place. So step inside the world of the Manse, and watch it unravel around you.Īnd of Apocalypse Cow Terry had the following to say: Once you start to question the laws and promises that hold your world together, the whole thing can start to come apart. Which requires the audacity not just to make a new world from scratch, but to unmake it too.Īfter all, getting a second opinion on the rules of reality can be a dangerous thing - as you'll know if you are familiar with the poemįrom which Half-Sick of Shadows takes its name. Terry had the following to say about Half Sick of Shadows:ĭavid Logan's anomalous world, the world of the Manse, is an unsettling place to be, precisely because he springs that shock on his unsuspecting characters - an uncommon trick,
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