Take That, Vegans

Meat in a vat seems fairly far along:

Researchers in the Netherlands created what was described as soggy pork and are now investigating ways to improve the muscle tissue in the hope that people will one day want to eat it.

No one has yet tasted their produce, but it is believed the artificial meat could be on sale within five years.

Animal rights group Peta said: “As far as we’re concerned, if meat is no longer a piece of a dead animal there’s no ethical objection.”

However the Vegetarian Society said: “The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered.

Now, if vegetarianism was solely about not eating meat, this would be great news. The last line suggests that isn't the case.

Rather, the environmental/vegan organizations are in large part home to unreconstructed socialists. They still believe that the capitalist system is doomed to fail and something more "sustainable" should take its place, but focus their energy on peak oil and animal cruelty these days.

Thus, I predict two trends. First, a civil war will break out among vegans over whether vat-grown meat is still acceptable. Bullshit side-arguments like concerns over labeling will mask what is really an aversion to meat and desire for self-abnegation.

Then, everyone else will pick up the next masochistic form of denial so they can feel better about themselves. I see local food as best placed to pick up market share. Which is still crazy, since food needs to be grown in Iowa, not Chicago.

As a corollary to Lexington's idea that people have a fixed quantity of intolerance, and merely spread it between people differently, I suggest that people have a fixed amount of guilt, and differ only over what to feel guilty about.