And breweries and vintners and on and on…
I would also argue that a dead cow probably looks worse than the machine shown.
That appears to be a tangential (or cross) flow filtration system, in which case it’s likely literally used for beer, wine and milk purification. It’s an incredibly common technology for nearly anything that needs purification - wine, beer, fruit juice, milk, nutritional supplements, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Here’s a link to a Krugman op-ed piece on this exact subject.
Here’s a good paragraph from that article:
On one level, this could be seen as a trivial story — a crackdown on an industry that doesn’t even exist yet. But the new Florida law is a perfect illustration of how crony capitalism, culture war, conspiracy theorizing and rejection of science have been merged — ground together, you might say — in a way that largely defines American conservatism today.
Of course, Fetterman has come along to show no party has a monopoly on anti-science, conspiracy-theory bullshit . Thanks, John!
Yeah this was a shock to me, the GOP are amoral scumbags without a shred of morals, them pulling this crap was not remotely shocking. Fetterman on the other hand seemed like a decent politician, this is both a stupid harmful policy AND a stupid policy to advocate for.
People, people… as mentioned very early in the thread, this is politicians doing what comes naturally to them, which is pandering to those who can offer either money or votes. So cattle and poultry producers and processors donate to campaigns, and workers in farm country vote, and in both cases it means delivering larger numbers than the lab meat sector can muster.
(And remember, with Fetterman, the common gag that Pennsylvania is an Eastern industrial city and a Midwestern industrial city, separated by a rural Southern/Appalachian state. It’s not prog country.)
I’d respect Fetterman and even DeSanctimonious more if they just used the excuse of protecting the jobs of hardworking rural constituents, rather than BS industry talking points to pretend there is something intrinsically wrong with lab meat. It’s perfectly licit to say “all that’s fine but I care more about the economy of my state”, dudes, don’t end up sounding stupid.
Are the people spreading this rumor aware of the already existing evidence that eating meat is linked to higher cancer risk?
Meat, fish, dairy and cancer risk - WCRF International.
My understanding is a lot of it has to do with how the meat is prepared but I’m not sure.
But how many of those rural PA beef farmers would ever vote for Fetterman no matter how much he shills for the beef industry?
This is a both a stupid policy and a stupid policy for a Democrat like Fetterman to advocate for. He has seriously gone down in my estimation because of this. Hell, more for the latter than the former, my main problem with Democrats is they are much more prone to do politically stupid things than actually adopt bad policies.
Just wait until someone comes out with lab-grown long pork! 
Fair enough.
Though I’d tread lightly with the cheesesteak crowd in South Philly 
…
It’s lovely though, yeah, how everyone loves the free market until our buddies may be the losers. I remember the first waves of “product disparagement” laws. So… you can’t put down our world-famous beef/pork/booze/tomatos/almonds/corn but WE can say your product is vile and dangerous and an affront to God and even ban it.
“The Food of the Gods”, Arthur C. Clarke — though that one coming at it from the opposite direction
sarcasm Chicken nuggets are made from the stuff that falls on the floor. I read it on Tick Tock.
/sarcasm
Krugman isn’t wrong about the hypocrisy on the right, but to pretend that this is somehow exclusive or even significantly more common than on the left is absurd. “Food purity” in its various forms has long been a central idea on the left. “Organic” is still largely bullshit, and it wasn’t the right pushing that. Gwyneth Paltrow, among many others, has been pushing this anti-GMO, anti-vax, anti-science bullshit for ages now, combining it with a distinct culture/lifestyle aesthetic, and coincidentally making a shitload of money in the process.
If anything, the right is late to the game here. It seems to come up whenever there’s some intersection with other right-associated interests like “manliness” (see Alex Jones’ vitamin pushing), and now, with meat-eating. Or at least where meat-eating crosses the line into being an identity rather than personal preference.
Pre-Covid (and pre QAnon) I would have agreed with this statement, but it’s really not true anymore. The GOP went out of it’s way to.make anti-vax anti-science conspiracy theory bullshit part of its core platform. Nowadays it’s predominantly (though not entirely) a right wing phenomom
In the specific case of COVID vaccines, I’d agree. But even that was an artifact of historical contingency. Quick, who said this?:
I think it’s going to be a very skeptical American public about taking the vaccine, and they should be… you’re going to need someone other than this FDA and this CDC saying it’s safe.
That was Andrew Cuomo. Or how about:
But if Joe Biden tells us we should take it, I’m not taking it.
That was Kamala Harris, though of course she actually said:
But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it.
I think if the 2020 election had gone the other way, we’d have seen a near-reversal in the attitudes towards the COVID vaccines.
In any case, COVID vaccines and now lab meat are just one small corner of the pseudoscience around food and drugs. All that other stuff is still around. Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties are still getting small measles outbreaks due to relatively poor vaccination rates.
The specific form of the pseudoscience takes different forms depending on where you are on the political spectrum, but it mostly has the same root causes.
I heartily disagree. The huge difference is that it’s now mainstream on the right, whereas it’s still wacky on the left (other than Fetterman, thanks, John). Kathy Hochul and Gavin Newsome aren’t proposing laws like this, Democratic surgeon generals aren’t anti-vaxxers like Florida’s, and so on.
I’ll be happy to discuss this further when Gwyneth Paltrow is running for governor or some other high office somewhere.
My sense has always been the “natural remedies” crowd, and I suppose, a decided distrust of Big Medicine, has definitely been more of a leftist persuasion. Conspiracy theory about Cancer, and cures, in particular also loomed large for many years.
It is unethical I think, to conflate those with a reluctance to receive a very very specific vaccine (in this case, what was then a brand new experimental emergency use only authorization vaccine for a brand new virus) with those who are truly against any form of vaccination at all, to tar those individuals as ignorant, was just dirty pool.
Eh… I’ll believe that it’s an economic thing when I see the Texas and Nebraska GOP politicians start crying about it.
I’m pretty firmly convinced this is an attempt to rile up their base by attacking something that sounds weird on its face, and trying to paint it as a “these European pansies are saying you can’t eat a real steak” type of issue, when it’s not even close to that.
Five years ago this was totally true. Asked to guess the political persuasion associated with a bonkers anti-vax conspiracy theory about cancer, I would guess in order of likelihood: non-party political, then left wing lunatic fringe, then ring wing lunatic fringe.
In the intervening five years (most especially over the covid crisis) the GOP co-oped that utterly bonkers fringe into their mainstream platform. So nowadays I’d guess “card carrying MAGA” first and then the other options someway behind
When I look at some politicians I wonder. Or maybe their brains are worm-eaten
Skepticism about vaccines in general, I expect, is a fairly small percentage. As far as the mRna vaccines, that is different, skeptics are certainly across the spectrum. This is kind of my point - it is unethical to brand someone as “Anti Science” say, because they might have reservations about taking an experimental treatment. See where I’m goin’ with that? I don’t believe this is confined to political persuasion.
In fairness, I can (sort of) see the point of those who wished to avoid vaccinations for their children - while complications from the schedules are quite rare, they do happen. Avoiding the perceived risk, they could also “hide” in an already herd immunized population. At some point, there was virtually no chance of contracting Polio, say. I’m not arguing I agree with any of this, but I understand why they didn’t want to take any chances. The other conspiracy theory was that vaccines (in general) cause Autism, or other behavioral issues, loss of IQ potential, etc.
*referencing a fairly common conspiracy belief in the 70s thru the 90s, that cancer was actually easily (or inexpensively) curable, and cures were being withheld. Something along those lines.
Have you heard about the uptick in Measles? The herd isn’t required to have their children vaccinated for it, so so they catch it and take it to school to share with their friends and enemies.
That’s what’s happening in Phoenix, out here in the sticks, Whooping Cough is endemic.