Lyah Thomas
TED Talks
Blog #1
Due: 9/2/14
Leather and Meat Without Killing Animals
Response
In today's society becoming vegan is like Facebook receiving a new user, it is becoming a daily entity and everybody is doing it. People are ditching meat and poultry for lentils and soy beans, which is fine. I on the other hand can't survive without some sort of meat on plate at all times. I applaud those who have chosen the greeny path as their source of nutrition, it is something that is natural and they don't have to guess (as much) as to where it comes from or even what/s in it. But, what happens when the ability to have fresh and Grade A foods are no longer a part of life. In this particular TED Talk Andras Forgacs talks about how he can use cells to make synthetic leather so that cows, can no longer be slaughtered. As he is discussing these scientific advancements he talks about eventually creating synthetic food.
Native Americans believed that once an animal is killed, none of the animal is wasted. Meaning, that the meat was cooked for food, the hide was used as clothing,and the bones were used as weapons. Granted that today everything is used in excess but, not to be cliche, "it's the circle of life." As he was discussing the process of the synthesis he held up three samples of the synthetic leather. The first sample he held up was the darkest of the three. It was the darkest because it used only twenty one sheets of the layered cells he discussed in the process. The lightest synthetic piece of leather, which was thinner than a sheet of wax paper, only used seven sheets of layered cells. Yes, any living thing never stops producing cells but, what happens to all of the farmers who specialize in livestock.
If this type of synthesis becomes mainstream then, wouldn't the farmers who raise livestock have to face the issue of crowd control with the cows. Now that the cows are not being used per say, and are just kind of sitting there pooping, sleeping, and grazing in the same place.This increases the risk of illness among the herd. Not to mention once the cows stop grazing in one area, wouldn't the keep moving on to the next. Once these nomadic cows run out of places to graze what is going to be left?
As Mr. Forgacs, continues to discuss the many things that could be done with his idea of bio fabrication, he talks of things of becoming more civilized. The idea of ending animals life for our own need is yes, not the best way but, it is the way the ecosystem has survived. Going back to the Native Americans. The settlers that came across the sea and encroached on the land of the indigenous (call me biased but, they encroached) had no idea how to farm. They used the same soil over and over again until they couldn't use it no longer. It was the Native Americans that taught the settlers how to cultivate the earth and yet the Native Americans uncivilized. Plus, hasn't anyone watched Planet of the Apes, The Fly, even Frankenstein some science just seems to go wrong.
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