Victoria Moran discusses cultivated meat
Victoria Moran is the author of 13 books — including The Love-Powered Diet, The Good Karma Diet, and The Main Street Vegan Academy Cookbook with JL Fields. She is the director of Main Street Vegan Academy and a cofounder of Compassion Consortium. Moran is a renaissance woman.
SFA: When and how did you first learn about cultivated meat?
VM: Years ago there was murmuring about it. It seemed really futuristic back then and there was no certainty it would ever come to pass in any practical way.
SFA: How did you come to support cultivated meat?
VM: I support any endeavor that will save the lives and end the needless suffering of innocent beings. I've heard counter claims, but none that have convinced me that cultivated meat can't be one of the important developments that will get us much closer to a vegan world.
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?
VM: It could be a total gamechanger. There are people who just want meat. It doesn't matter how meaty veggie-burgers get; this percentage of the population wants to consume animal tissue. I don't believe that a sizable portion of these people are sadists who won't eat it if it didn't cause an animal to suffer. They just want what they want, and if it can be had for the same price as the cruel product —which is also destroying the planet — I believe the majority will be on board.
SFA: What would you say to animal activists who are opposed to cultivated meat?
VM: I would say that they have to follow their conscience, but just as I want to hear what they have to say, I would urge them to listen to the other side with an open mind, too.
SFA: Would you eat cultivated meat, or is it just something you want available for others?
VM: Not unless there were extraneous circumstances — let's see: if I ate cultured meat, somebody would donate $10,000 to an animal rights organization. Then I'd do it, but not otherwise. I haven't tasted meat from a land animal since I was a teenager. Now I'm 71. I don't think it would kill me but I'm not eager to test that.
SFA: Do you think activists should expend energy and resources to help advance cellular agriculture, by pushing for more government funding for cultivated-meat research?
VMA: I think activists don't need my help in expending energy. They're expending energy 24/7. I trust that those whose passion is cultured meat will focus there. Others will focus elsewhere. We're a tireless group and we're at our best when we're focused on those areas about which we're most passionate.