Tl;dr Chinese lab grown meat and plant based meat is potentially going to undermine the American factory farms in production and price.

The article even brings up how it's better for the planet than clearing forests to grow crops to feed animals for meat. But at what cost?!?!?

Also the title was even more red scare-y when first published.

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  • AernaLingus [any]
    ·
    8 hours ago
    Full text (Part 2)

    Many Americans remain skeptical about proteins derived from nonanimal sources, but Chinese have been eating one of them — tofu — for a while now. It's hard to imagine Chinese diners completely giving up meat, but when the government goes all in on something and prepares the public for it through state-controlled media, the people usually fall in line. If it can come up with a protein solution embraced by its own consumers, chances are this made-in-China version will go global, like its solar panels and electric vehicles.

    To their credit, the Republican representatives' letter acknowledged that the United States needs to find a way to remain competitive in this critical emerging sector, too. Let's hope that China's push into the alternative meat industry does not become another cynical opportunity for American lawmakers to demonize Chinese intent but is embraced as a scientific and commercial challenge. Competition is no bad thing; it can drive innovation faster and in new and necessary directions.

    But if America stands in the way of progress that may be good for the world, it will only make us look like part of the problem. China will eat our lunch — or, rather, stop eating ours and start eating its own.

    • AernaLingus [any]
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Some quotes:

      It's the type of reaction we see often in Washington these days, where everything China does is viewed through the narrow and often skewed prism of national security, regardless of whether it's positive for the world. Not satisfied with trying to render our gas guzzlers obsolete with its electric vehicles, the thinking goes, the Chinese Communist Party is apparently coming for our burgers and Thanksgiving turkeys, too.

      ...

      The age-old way of producing meat — clearing forests to feed vast herds of greenhouse-gas-emitting livestock whose flesh is shipped through global supply chains — is hurting the planet. If scientists can figure out how to affordably cultivate meat in a lab at scale, it could become the standard mealtime fare of tomorrow. It might have to. And if China is willing to invest in technologies with potentially global benefits, Americans should view it not as a national security threat but as inspiration for how our protein markets could evolve, too.

      ...

      As Patrick Brown, the founder of the U.S. plant-based meat producer Impossible Foods, put it in 2020, "Every time someone in China eats a piece of meat, a little puff of smoke goes up in the Amazon." Such sentiments have stirred resentment in China. Its people are as entitled to a high-protein diet as anyone, and Chinese eat less meat per person than Americans do.

      ...

      But if America stands in the way of progress that may be good for the world, it will only make us look like part of the problem. China will eat our lunch — or, rather, stop eating ours and start eating its own.