Islamic scholars consulted by a leading producer of cultivated meat say that the newfangled protein — which is grown from animal cells and doesn’t require animals to be slaughtered — can be halal, or permissible under Muslim law.

And the Jewish Orthodox Union this month certified a strain of lab-grown chicken as kosher for the first time, “marking a significant step forward for the food technology’s acceptance under Jewish dietary law,” as the Times of Israel put it.

    • Floey@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Arguably. I think a lot of lab meat currently uses massive amounts of FBS instead of alternatives. Though I guess many vegetarians don’t have a problem with renet.

        • agoseris@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Some of the cows slaughtered for meat are pregnant. Fetal bovine serum comes from the blood extracted from these cow fetuses.

          Since it is used to produce lab grown meat, it is not vegetarian

          • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Pretty sure it’d still be vegetarian, just not Vegan then right? At least how I generally have heard it defined, vegetarians are OK with eating food made from animal byproducts (though it’s preferable to avoid) and only vegans refuse to consume anything with any animal byproducts

            • Spzi@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              For some vegetarians, it makes a difference wether an animal had to die in the process. It’s one thing to continously harvest milk or eggs from an animal which otherwise lives on happily. It’s another thing to eat something which could only be obtained by slaughtering an animal.

              In the same sense, many hard cheeses like Parmesan or Gran Padano aren’t vegetarian either, because they use rennet.

              • stopthatgirl7@kbin.socialOP
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                1 year ago

                Isn’t the vast majority of cheese now made with bacterial rennet instead of calf rennet? I remember reading that something like 95% of cheese now was made with that instead.

                • Spzi@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Would be nice to know, I’d like to read a source. On wiki, I got the impression the driving incentive is not to kill less calfs, but to produce more rennet, to ultimately produce more cheese. The German wiki quotes “Nur ca. 35 % der weltweiten Käseproduktion können mit Naturlab produziert werden.”, roughly “Only about 35% of worldwide cheese production can be produced with rennet from animals”. Technically still a vast majority.

    • Echo Dot
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      1 year ago

      There isn’t really a central authority for deciding if it’s vegetarian or not though.

      Technically is not an animal product so I guess it is vegetarian but also at the same time it’s still meat so it isn’t.

      I guess it depends on what your objection to meat is. If your objection is based on animal cruelty then I guess it’s probably vegetarian but if your objection is based on dietary restrictions (religious or otherwise) then obviously it’s not.

      • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        Hello, it is I the pope of vegetables. On behalf of the interests of all plants I do ordain this diet

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The vegans I know seem to be split on the issue. Most of them agree that it’s technically vegan, but about half of them worry that they have been plant based so long that it still might wreck their digestive systems.

      • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I think vegans are completely against any meat because they think it’s unhealthy, and vegetarians think it’s immoral.

        I just think it’s tasty.

        • Echo Dot
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          1 year ago

          Vegans are the ones that think it’s immoral. It’s like the joke goes, how can you tell if someone is vegan, because they will tell you.

          Vegetarian is just a dietary preference.

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Vegans have more to do with morals than vegetarians. Vegans may refrain from using animal based products like leather, which can be completely unrelated to health. A vegetarian diet is just that, a diet without meat. Can be for health or moral reasons, unspecified.

          Many things are tasty, many of which don’t have the detrimental implications of animal products, especially meat.

    • VonCesaw@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ethically it’s dubiously vegetarian, culinarily it’s meat. Mostly depends on how they harvested the cells tbh.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        From what I have read it seems that these cultures are started with a small biopsy. Probably nothing worse than what we do at the doctor or the veterinarian. Lemmy knows I’ve had to have a ton of lumps on dogs checked out.

        • VonCesaw@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Some vegetarians do not like the idea of eating animal AT ALL, even if its ethically sourced and lab grown

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            I guess that makes sense if you’re in it for perceived health benefits. I think most vegetarians are ethically motivated, but I could be wrong.

    • OscarRobin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I would argue given it is still animal tissue - not cellulose etc - it remains not vegetarian because it is not in any way made of plants. It is, however, not made via animals in any way and thus most people who currently consider themselves vegetarians would probably eat it as most vegetarians are so on moral grounds.