Cultivated meat a plus for environment, public health

To the editor,

I was disappointed to learn President Biden’s USDA is giving out more than $223 million in grants and loans to expand the nation’s slaughter capacity. Instead, the department should have invested these funds into cultivated-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without killing. This revolutionary protein is better for the environment, public health and nonhuman welfare.

Propping up traditional animal agriculture is a betrayal of the progressive values Biden campaigned on. Cultivated meat requires a fraction of the greenhouse-gas emissions that raising livestock does. Since animals are removed from the process, the threat of zoonotic diseases making the jump to humans is greatly reduced. Finally, widespread adoption of cultivated meat would help usher in a more compassionate age for God’s creatures.

— Jon Hochschartner

Granby, Conn.