Settler Histories and Sustainable Meats

Gilad, Efrat (25 October 2021). Settler Histories and Sustainable Meats. History Workshop Online

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This past summer, Israeli startup Future Meat Technologies launched the world’s first industrial facility to mass produce lab-grown meat. Of the roughly 25 “cultured meat” startups in the world, Israel is home to five, a disproportionally large number and second only to the United States’ six. Despite claims of environmental and moral superiority, the commercial drive to produce lab-grown meat is rooted in the traditional meat industry; it stems from the idea that a beefless future is inconceivable, it is at least partially funded by conventional meat-producing titans such as Cargill and Tyson, and is still reliant on the suffering and killing of animals (see: Bovine Fetal Serum). With its long history of large-scale ranching and massive meat packing, it is clear why the United States is spearheading the path towards lab-grown beef. Israel, on the other hand, only recently became a prominent beef consumer and it produces only a fraction of the beef it consumes. Unlike the American story of meat abundance, the drive for lab-grown beef in Israel is embedded in a history of meat scarcity. It is a story of settlement, colonization, and a desire for meat in an environment that does not support it.

Item Type:	Newspaper or Magazine Article
Division/Institute:	01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Jewish Studies
UniBE Contributor:	Gilad, Efrat
Subjects:	200 Religion > 290 Other religions 900 History > 950 History of Asia 900 History > 990 History of other areas
Language:	English
Submitter:	Efrat Gilad
Date Deposited:	04 Apr 2023 15:18
Last Modified:	04 Apr 2023 15:18
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/181334