Critical Perspectives on Cultured Meat

This book explores cultured and lab-grown meat, challenging the widespread narrative that these products are inherently ethical and sustainable alternatives to industrial animal agriculture.

Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars—from communication studies, philosophy, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, and critical animal studies—this volume examines the promises surrounding cultured meat. Each chapter presents a distinct critique, taking up issues such as the techno-utopian framing of these products as inevitable progress, the role of capitalism in shaping the technology, greenwashing by corporate advocates, the gendered dimensions of cultured meat, and the ways these technologies can reinforce speciesism and perpetuate harm to animals. While the contributors approach the topic from diverse perspectives, they share a commitment to interrogating the unexamined assumptions surrounding cultured meat and to fostering a more politically engaged dialogue about the future of animal agriculture in the face of ecological crisis. The chapters do not uniformly oppose cultured meat, but they subject its promises to critical scrutiny.

This book will appeal to students and scholars of food studies, the environmental humanities, animal studies, and critical science and technology studies, as well as to a broader audience of readers eager to explore the ethical, environmental, political, and economic dimensions of cultured meat.