Log in

Opinion

Hochschartner: Arizona's senators should foster cultured-meat research

Posted

I imagine Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, like most people, want to leave a legacy of some kind. They can do this by supporting federal funding for open-access cultured-meat research. For those who don't know, cultured meat is grown from cells, without slaughter.

What better legacy could there be than helping usher in a more compassionate world? We kill over a trillion aquatic and land animals every year for food. This represents so much suffering, it's impossible to comprehend. Frankly, no human tragedy or injustice comes close.

Cultured meat has the potential to end this violence. It's already been granted regulatory approval in Singapore. Still, major hurdles remain, such as reaching price parity with slaughtered meat and developing whole-cut products, like steak and filets. Public funding for research will help meet these challenges.