R: Do you eat meat?
D: Yes.
R: Do you think that meat is healthy?
D: Um, if, you know…generally speaking. If you don’t eat too much of it.
R: Do you ever feel bad about killing animals to get meat?
D: No, although I tend not to eat veal, because they are cute little cows. I have no problem eating lamb, though.
R: Why?
D: Because it tastes too good!
R: Did you know that 70% of the world’s land is used for raising cattle based on the demand for consumption of meat?
D: 70%? That’s hard to imagine.
R: Have you heard much about the agriculture and cattle raising industry having negative environmental side effects?
D: Oh yeah, I am sure there are.
R: By 2050, the world will have 9 billion people and it will take 140% of the land to meet the need for consumption of meat. What do you think about that?
D: Well, um, I think people should cut back on eating meat.
R: If there was a way to get meat without killing animals or producing negative environment effects, would you be ok with that?
D: What would that be?
R: You would grow the meat.
D: Grow meat?
R: Yeah, what do you think about that?
D: Ok, as long as it makes a good burger.
R: So, you would grow the meat. Basically, you would take a biopsy from a cow, remove a chunk of muscle, extract stem cells, then begin the process of duplication to grow muscle fibers. It would be similar to how we can grow organs for transplant.
D: Yummy, I can’t hardly wait.
R: They call it in vitro meat.
D: I don’t like that name.
R: Why not?
D: It sounds like are killing a baby.
R: If this type of meat was presented properly, would you consider eating it?
D: Yeah.