Current Affairs Founder Supports Cultivated-Meat Research
Nathan J. Robinson is the founder and editor-in-chief of Current Affairs, a bimonthly progressive magazine. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prominent outlets. I recently interviewed him about his views on cellular agriculture.
SLAUGHTER FREE AMERICA: I understand from your writing that, while you’re not vegan, you regard the treatment of animals as a serious moral issue. How did you come to this awareness?
NATHAN J. ROBINSON: I do not remember how I came to the awareness. A gradual process, I was actually vegetarian before I thought seriously about the ethical questions, as my father is a vegetarian for health reasons and I sort of inherited my vegetarianism. I think it was in college where I began thinking seriously about whether it was right or wrong to eat meat and I concluded that the unnecessary slaughter of conscious creatures could not be justified. It became a physical revulsion as much as a moral one, I cannot think about where meat comes from without feeling nauseous.
SFA: Once cultivated meat is cheaper than and indistinguishable or superior in taste to slaughtered meat, what sort of impact might it have on traditional agriculture?
NJB: Well the hope would be of course that once the economics of it work for the industry, a colossal amount of animal suffering and death will be eliminated. It will completely transform the process of feeding people.
SFA: What would you say to progressives who are opposed to cultivated meat?
NJB: That there are no rational objections to it. I just don't see how anyone could possibly prefer a system built on suffering and death to one that provides an indistinguishable experience but without that suffering and death. Seems to me to be sociopathic to disagree with that. Obviously there are practical considerations (will it be safe? will it be affordable? etc) but assuming those have satisfactory answers, how could anyone reasonably argue that we want to preserve the industrial killing machine for its own sake? Madness.
SFA: Would you support increased federal funding for cultivated meat research?
NJB: Absolutely. As a new industry it needs as much government support as we can give until it becomes viable on its own. It's extremely important morally and we cannot rely on the market alone to move us in the correct direction, since morality means nothing to the market.