Molecular farming company Moolec has inserted pig genes into soy beans to generate meaty-tasting proteins that can be grown in plants.

I’m naturally quite cautious about things like this, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

      • dat_math [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        11 months ago

        I did. The article is riddled with blind support for plant based capitalism and suggests using the tech to improve existing meat products. I also read a little about moolec, which itself grew out of is quite cozy with the pork industry. Finally, where are they getting the DNA subsequences? Is such a company going to build a small library of DNA and then never grow/purchase new pigs to deconstruct to catalog taste, texture, and genetic material?

        Soybeans are good, and they don’t need to taste or feel like pigs for people to enjoy them.

        • davel [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          61·
          11 months ago

          It’s Wired: of course it’s going to be riddled with blind support for capitalism.

          Finally, where are they getting the DNA subsequences?

          From the industrial scale pig torture infrastructure that was already here.

          Soybeans are good, and they don’t need to taste or feel like pigs for people to enjoy them.

          Scolding people into eating their beans has been going great so far.

          • dat_math [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            5·
            11 months ago

            From the industrial scale pig torture infrastructure that was already here.

            That’s exactly my point.

            Scolding people into eating their beans has been going great so far.

            Stating that we don’t need to grow animal proteins inside plants for beans to be good is not the same thing as scolding people for not eating their beans.

            All I’m trying to say is that I think we shouldn’t be growing or using the meat industries to develop alternatives to animal products, and I am quite confident that there is more profit to be made for moolec if they continue trading with meat processors (both to acquire new animals for testing and dna extraction, and also in supplying meat processors with cheaper protein) than if they were to immediately halt any further development that depends on growing or harvesting new animals and only grow or sell from seed stock they’ve developed so far.

      • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Chinese people have been making plant based umami tofu since before fictional Jesus Christ was around

        There’s literally no reason to bring a pig into it when you could just use mushrooms or something else for umami flavor

        Crackkkers trying to reinvent the soy wheel, badly, with more animal cruelty

    • CoreOffsetOPEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      I absolutely agree with that statement. I guess I had assumed, maybe wrongly, that you wouldn’t have to do any of that. Do you know of a source that goes into the specifics?

      • dat_math [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        you wouldn’t have to do any of that.

        I would think the animal exploitation is only absolutely necessary early in R&D where they’re still figuring out stuff like which sequences code for production of what proteins, how those are expressed and how these interact with other instructions in the plant dna.

        However, I also expect there’s much more profit to be made in continued testing, more animal-based R&D in the form of trying to translate desirable phenotypes in animal meat to the plant-produced analog, and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein and sell it to omnivores as a greenwashed meat product. All I’m trying to say is that I think they should do the R&D without exploiting more animals.

        • davel [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein

          I can absolutely see this happening. I can also see them slowly replacing the actual meat with more and more nonmeat fillers over time, as fewer and fewer people can even afford meat.

        • CoreOffsetOPEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I also expect there’s much more profit to be made in continued testing, more animal-based R&D in the form of trying to translate desirable phenotypes in animal meat to the plant-produced analog, and in selling the protein back to the meat industry who can mix it with similarly graded animal protein and sell it to omnivores as a greenwashed meat product.

          Reflecting on what we know about the world I’m sure you are correct when it comes to that.

          I was just coming at from the point of view that we probably all know some people in our lives that are never going to go Vegan because it’s the morally correct thing to do. They just don’t care. So, while I wouldn’t support a scenario you described it would still be better for those people to at least transition to something like that.

          I realize it’s far from ideal, and I’m not promoting it, but it would objectively be better than those same people eating tortured baby animals the way humanity does it currently.

          All I’m trying to say is that I think they should do the R&D without exploiting more animals.

          I agree with that.

          I’m hoping that people turn to alternatives as the costs keep rising. I was taking a look at the effects of inflation on groceries and it seems that animal products were the hardest hit. I know so many people that will complain yet still buy at these high prices because of a combination of not caring and being addicted to these foods. If they had an alternative maybe they would opt for it.

          Any drop in demand is a compounding effect. It’ll just accelerate the price increases as volume drops and hopefully one day we get to a point where we can extinguish these industries.

          Obviously I realize that’s an optimistic point of view.