> If we had fully lab grown meat that was identical to the real thing. How many of us would convert? In theory, we all would.
Why would we all, even in theory? If we could farm animals humanely, grazing them in areas where crops anyway can't be planted, letting them range, giving them a good life where they don't fear predators, don't freeze to death in winter or die of hyperthermia in the summer etc., and then kill them humanely (by which I mean, with as little pain as possible) when we decide, why would that be less moral than killing off the entire species (more or less) and living off lab-produced meat?
Even if it would be possible for the farmed animal to really have a fulfilling life (which I don't think is possible in the current, industrialized world), there are still humans who are caring for the animals, there are humans who are killing and dissecting them, and they too are affected by the inhumane process, and I think our empathy should extend to them too.
> which I don't think is possible in the current, industrialized world
This is a concern I share.
> there are still humans who are caring for the animals, there are humans who are killing and dissecting them, and they too are affected by the inhumane process, and I think our empathy should extend to them too.
As far as I know, farmers don't suffer any kind of psychological damage from caring for and slaughtering animals, and haven't throughout human history. Again, factory farm workers are a different problem.
Then you should watch the Dark Side of Dairy documentary.
A farmer started to cry and asked for the camera to be turned off - when he was asked what happens to the mother and baby cow.
Or look on Youtube farmers talking about 'There is a person in there' when talking about their farm animals. Or farmers who have given up on exploiting animals and switched to different kinds of farming.
This is a good read. Not very emotional, but good description of one of the jobs. One interesting bit: "the vast majority of farmers don’t do it. They might be rearing the livestock for meat and understand that the animals’ ultimate destination is an abattoir, but that doesn’t mean they like killing.... It’s the same as with an old dog: they could do it themselves, but they can’t."
Would you actually get meat of a quality good enough that people would want it if you did that?
Currently, most meat-producing animals are overfed and killed young. Would an animal that gets fed a healthy diet and killed once it's had a long and fulfilling life actually produce meat people would want?
If we had fully lab grown meat that was identical to the real thing. How many of us would convert? In theory, we all would.
In reality, we still covet mined diamonds, so we'll probably still irrationaly claim there's a difference long after there really is.