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→ Lab-grown meat: the new culture war
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis banned the sale of lab-grown meat this week, showcasing the bizarre contours of America’s cultural realignment.
In the bill, fear-mongering over the World Economic Forum’s dastardly plot to reform our diets meets good old-fashioned economic protectionism, with DeSantis’s press release calling lab-grown meat “disgraceful” and an affront to “proud traditions”. Democratic Senator John Fetterman reluctantly praised the move, adding that he would “never serve that slop to my kids”.
Libertarians and techno-optimists were unsurprisingly distraught. It’s just the latest in populists’ war on capitalism and innovation, and a rejection of human ingenuity, they argued. Bill Gates, noted lab meat supporter, said to be hardest hit.
→ Swedish Quran burning goes ahead
Europe may once again have to brace itself for a free speech and blasphemy row, as the Swedish city of Malmo today hosts a Quran-burning event. Local authorities granted permission for the demonstration, taking place days before Malmo hosts the Eurovision Song Contest, but both Muslim and non-Muslim religious leaders have objected on grounds of inciting hatred and provoking disorder.
Authorities in Malmo, Sweden, have granted permission for a Quran-burning event scheduled to take place tomorrow, igniting concerns over potential unrest and division within the community.https://t.co/KbnwRBWoRi
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) May 2, 2024
The organisers behind the burning reportedly have a history of leading similar events across Sweden, while there were several Quran-burning incidents in the country last year as well as in neighbouring Denmark. While Copenhagen then passed a law in December banning deliberate desecrations of the Muslim holy book in public spaces, Sweden is yet to follow suit.
The upcoming edition of Eurovision involves Israel, a decision which has provoked criticism across the continent and protests in the host country. Malmo has now been rated as a moderate terrorist threat in anticipation of violent responses. The strong reaction to a far more innocuous Quran incident in Yorkshire last year suggests the same danger would be present in Britain…
→ Women’s Equality Party bests Reform UK
In a surprising outcome in this week’s local elections, the Women’s Equality Party has its first ever elected councillor — and not even a former prime minister could get in the way. Stacy Hart’s victory in Hatch Warren & Beggarwood came days after Theresa May canvassed for the Tory candidate in the constituency. What’s more, it means the WEP has one more elected councillor than Reform UK, whose council representatives have otherwise defected from other parties — despite Richard Tice’s party polling at 16% nationally.
The Women's Equality Party currently have more councillors than Reform https://t.co/glqrRterwX
— Alan White (@aljwhite) May 3, 2024
Reform ran over 300 candidates in the local election, but its main concern for the night was the Blackpool South by-election where it finished third, trailing the Conservatives by a tiny 117 votes. Would a Reform-WEP electoral pact shift the dial?
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SubscribeLab grown meat, eh. Somehow I have a vision of a scientist peering lovingly at a vat of meat growing in the lab. Gradually a body takes shape, then a head, then the teeth, then the screams.
Just wait till they start growing desserts. There will be ice screams, i tell you…
Not sure anyone would peer lovingly at ‘cell slurry’ which this stuff grows in.
I like DeSantis, but banning lab-grown meat is a ridiculous overstep. If people want to eat the slop, that’s up to them, not the state. It’s no different than politicians banning things like soft drinks. I can think of a hundred legal products more unhealthy than lab-grown meat..
I agree with your sentiment, Jim but I think he’s trying to get ahead of the unelected global problem-solvers’ plan to “equitably” manage distribution of the food supply.
The guy’s been right about everything in the past 4 years. Give it time. I assume he’ll be right again. Disney settled btw…
As much as I disagree in principle with government interference with consumer choice, I can’t help but consider you might be right. The fact Bill Gates hates this ban makes me doubt my own convictions. To me this looks like the farm lobby defending its turf and I hope that’s all it is.
De Santis is why so many moved to Florida – as my husband and I did – during the Covid madness, and they keep coming. He will make a fine president one day.
I agree. As long as they’re not banning, taxing, or otherwise leaning on the scale to influence people, the government has no business getting involved. It’s up to the consumers and the marketplace to decide what new products are successful. I’ve had this argument about my father about the impossible whopper or whatever else. It’s not like you can’t get the regular version. If you don’t want it, don’t order it. They just added the new one to appeal to consumers, particularly young consumers who are always targeted by marketers the hardest and who are more likely to be vegan. There’s nothing wrong with this as long as it isn’t a result of government putting their fingers on the scale. Smart business owners and marketers tailor all kinds of things, from the appearance of their product to their marketing campaigns, to appeal to different consumer demographics.
Believe it or not, there are McDonald’s in India, despite the fact that a large portion of people don’t eat beef for religious reasons. They don’t sell nearly as many hamburgers and most Americans wouldn’t recognize the menu there. Why should the government of India stop them? Until and unless there’s scientific evidence that lab grown meat is somehow dangerous or less healthy, there’s no legitimate reason for government to interfere with the market.
Of course this wasn’t done for any legitimate reason. This is all about politics and how it works. I’ve mentioned before how powerful the American farm lobby truly is. I rate the agricultural lobby as just behind the military industrial complex in actual influence. Something like what happened in the Netherlands likely would never get off the ground here. Lab grown meat threatens a lot of farmers and ranchers who make an awful lot of money selling beef, pork, chicken, etc., and those who grow crops used in animal feed. Farming, like any other industry, tends to resist change because why fix what isn’t broke. It takes effort to find new crops or new customers and things might or might not work out as well after these changes. This is politics as usual. Move along.
Lab grown ‘meat’? No, lab grown protein. Why do people who want to control what you eat have to call anything ultra processed that they want to persuade you to eat after the very stuff they are trying to persuade you not to eat?
Probably because if they didn’t you wouldn’t. Personally I wouldn’t put that stuff inside myself unless I was starving to death.
I guess lab meat would be more nourishing than say, chihuahua meat.
Unless the cells were cloned from a chihuahua in the first place. All sorts of possibilities!
This is the American farm lobby hard at work. Bill Gates has probably met his match here. He and his ilk won’t beat them in a direct confrontation. As much money and influence as they have, the farm lobby has more. It’s probably the second most powerful industry lobby group in America there is after the military industrial complex. It’s backed up by deep agricultural traditions, an almost mythic reverence for the ‘family farm’ of pioneer days, and powerful companies like Monsanto, Dow, etc. If Bill and company wants to move this particular mountain, he’d better come hat in hand like a beggar and try to pitch the farm lobby and it’s corporate sponsors some way to make money off this scheme, the same way that the ‘renewable energy’ people have successfully enlisted the oil companies to back parts of their agenda. As long as lab grown meat looks like a scheme for big tech to encroach on the territory of the titans of agriculture, you’re likely to see more of this sudden bipartisan opposition to something nobody knew anything about this time last year.
Lab grown meat. I’d bet that’s not kosher.
The WEP result caught my eye more than the lab- grown not-food (which I wouldn’t eat unless it was that or starvation). In my local elections a couple of years back the WEP candidate was a six foot two man with a big pink beard who wears a purple velvet suit with sandals and trundles up to the local ‘Spoon every night on his mobility scooter. Quite a character, but barely got into triple figures of votes.