Jacy Reese is a writer, social scientist, and co-founder of Sentience Institute. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at Sentience Politics, and before that at Animal Charity Evaluators as chair of the board of directors and then as a full-time researcher.

Similar technologies will produce alternatives to dairy, eggs, honey, and other consumable products that depend on taking away from animals. The process of creating clean meat is different depending on the company cultivating it, but it involves much of the same technology. Cells Are Extracted From Real Animals A call to action for animal advocates everywhere, The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System (Beacon 2018), the brand new release from Jacy Reese, Research Director at the Sentience Institute, rethinks the modern food system with smart, candid detail and expansive implications. Vegetarians only represent about 3.2 percent of the American populationby one estimate. Other countries might have larger or smaller percentages of vegetarians, but most of the world consumes meat and animal by-products. This is a problem. Factory farming of pigs in the Netherlands is a dead end,” he says. “We now know that a pig is not a thing: it is a sentient being with a high level of intelligence, comparable with the intelligence of a child. What I see worldwide is that many pig farmers don’t know any more what pigs are about. They just don’t have the skills to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”Instead, Scheepens argues, pigs need a more natural environment, to be able to root around in beds of straw or wood chips and have outdoor access, with a special toilet replacing slatted floors (where urine and faeces fall through and mix). The difference between cultured meat and “real” meat is that no animal has to lose its life to provide meat for human consumption. The extracted cells don’t kill the animal. One animal can provide multiple extractions, and more importantly, one extraction can ultimately provide huge amounts of clean meat.

I would say pigs are the most hygienic animals we have on the farm,” he says. “They will not poo or pee in their nest. Pooing always goes well: their noses are so sensitive, they recognise the smell.” Meat has become a throwaway product, where the true value is not seen any more Kees Scheepens A big part of social movement success is working with and springboarding off of other movements and communities, so I would like to see more religiously inclined animal advocates working to encourage change in this area. Andersson C, Törnberg A, Törnberg P (2014) Societal systems—complex or worse? Futures 63:145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2014.07.003Taking just a few cells from an animal and growing meat that might become a burger or steak is far more sustainable than breeding millions of animals for slaughter. Not only does the latter practice harm animals and contribute to their suffering, but it’s hard on our natural resources. If you have a pet, such as a dog, think about your relationship. You work cooperatively in your day-to-day lives. Your pet provides love, companionship, entertainment, and loyalty. In turn, you offer those same things in addition to food, water, shelter, and access to things your pets can’t get on their own. Norwood B, Murray S (2018) FooDS Food Demand Survey, vol. 5. Oklahoma State University. http://agecon.okstate.edu/files/january%202018.pdf As much as you might enjoy that Saturday night burger, ingesting meat from factory farms can put your pulmonary, respiratory, and cardiac systems at risk. Many consumers don’t understand meat labeling, such as those products that purport to come from “free-range” or “cage-free” sources. Ferrara EL, Chong A, Duryea S (2012) Soap operas and fertility: evidence from Brazil. Am Econ J 4:1–31. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.4.4.1