I made this comment on vegan@slrpnk.net and it feels like something I want to revisit at some point, or post at others who go on about "easing into veganism" But a random comment might get lost and also I'd like some feedback on it.
The problem with “Eventually affordable cruelty-free meat” is that it gives the fence sitters a cushion to delay making a commitment. And we need people to make a hard commitment, either against veganism (i. e. nothing changes) or for veganism (i. e. suffering reduces). There are a certain type of people that wear cruelty like a badge of honor. There was no convincing them anyway. But for most people I would think the cognitive dissonance “I don’t like being cruel vs. I am being cruel” simply has to outweigh the perceived amount of labor that goes into changing ones habits.
And I understand that meat-alternatives tip the scales by lessening the amount of labor required to change ones dietary habits, which is great. I am hugely in favor of that. But there are a couple things that I feel one needs to be mindful of.
a. The focus gets shifted away from the animals and to the “sacrifices” the (former?) oppressor has to make. E.g. This salami is good, but not as good as the "real" one
b. There is a constant reminder of the "sacrifices" the vegan makes. In contrast to the cruelty that is usually completely invisible to the consumer. E.g. every time I eat some vegan salami
c. Substituting meat with vegan alternatives means that if someone decides they are “done sacrificing” comfort, they can simply substitute back. E.g. It's been such a stressful week, sick of all the vegan salami, just this once...
d. It makes it harder for children of vegan parents to recognise vegan food vs non-vegan food. E. g. Yeah we eat salami at home, so why shouldn’t I eat the salami in the kindergarden? I wish we had more of an alienation from non-vegan food from the beginning with our kids.
It’s the nicotine patches argument all over again. I’m not against meat-alternatives per se, but (here in Germany) there’s such a huge huge trend to offer all kinds of alternatives with little thought given to how we should be approaching this problem. Free nicotine patches to all addicts sounds great but there needs to be a movement for moving past “nicotine addiction” in general which I’m not seeing anywhere.
With the lab-grown flesh stuff I fear all the points above amplified 100fold. It’s functionally flesh, that's the whole point. Plus since it’s not a practicable alternative it has, for the past 13 years, actually tipped the scales in favor of the “cruelty” cognitive dissonance, by giving it an “eventually”. The amount of (perceived) labor seems greater now than it will be once an "affordable(!) flesh-substitute" arrives, which is somehow always right around the corner. The “I'm too stressed to give up smoking right now” argument. Like yeah don’t quit smoking a week before a big exam, but don’t wait until you can afford a beach vacation either.
I hope that makes sense, in a vegan context it’s of course a bit different because the stakes are quite a bit higher. Do give up murdering as soon as possible. An exam is not more important than someones life. But if you're so dependant on your current dietary habits that you couldn't function without it due to some health concerns then lab-grown flesh or other alternatives might be an idea? It is kind of hard because here the oppressors have to police themselves. This is a situation where the oppressed cannot make their voices heard and so we must double and triple-check ourselves and when in doubt go with the more laborious option.
There's also the point about the food traditions we pass on. (Which is the thread that sparked this argument)
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.
Like yeah we are dealt this hand by the generations before us and we have to make the best of it, but lets also be mindful of how we are passing things on. Do we really want the next generation to have lab-grown flesh as a staple in their diet?
I absolutely think that society eventually needs to move on from even simulating meat consumption in vegan options. It limits the imagination of how varied and flavourful cuisine can be.
When I was raised by my vegetarian Indian family, we didn't have the option of meat substitutes. The variety of cheap and flavourful dishes available to us with those constraints was still greater than the kinds of food I can make here on my own.
In the short term, meat simulacra can allow for a frictionless transition to veganism, but fundamentally, these are the symptoms of a capitalist society with a dead imagination.
As you talk about "sacrifices", carnists will keep comparing meat substitutes to actual meat, and based on these complaints, they will refuse to make "sacrifices".
But if we have "real" alternatives, then the calculus changes dramatically. It's no longer a "sacrifice" but a different thing entirely. Kind of like the difference between making walkable cities vs replacing combustion cars with EVs.
And of course, I'm not arguing that westerners should just adopt Asian foods (though they are welcome to do so). There are many foods in the west that have been lost, and many foods waiting to be invented.