To the editor:
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer should support a massive investment of federal funds into open-access cultured meat research for the sake of the environment, animal welfare and public health. For readers who aren’t familiar with the term, cultured meat is grown from cells, without slaughter.
The environmental benefits of this new protein are manifold. The land, fresh water and greenhouse gas emissions required to produce it are a tiny fraction of those necessary to raise animals. Meanwhile, there is no runoff of agricultural waste into rivers and oceans, since cultured meat is produced in a closed system.
The animal welfare benefits offered by cultured meat should be apparent. We kill over a trillion aquatic and land animals every year for food. The amount of suffering this represents is impossible to comprehend. To put it into perspective, only about 107 billion humans have ever lived, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
The public health benefits of cultured meat are very important; it doesn’t require artificial growth hormones and unnecessary antibiotics. Since animals are removed from the process, the danger of zoonotic viruses like COVID-19 making the jump to humans is eliminated.
Congress should reallocate the billions of dollars a year in subsidies the federal government gives to animal exploitation industries to cultured meat research. This groundbreaking protein will benefit the environment, animal welfare and public health. We must transform our food system.
Jon Hochschartner, Granby, Conn.