What is the Vedic perspective on artificial meat?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Question, what is the Vedic perspective on artificial meat, meat that is prepared by using cells from the animal’s bodies and cultivated in an artificial environment? It is said that this meat does not involve any violence to animals. And so, it can be taken by even people who would otherwise not take meat because of the violence involved.
PETA has supported this meat. So, what is the Vedic perspective on this? Answer, as of now, the meat which is made artificially is far from the economically viable. So, it is not an immediate concern for most people whether they will take it or not.
But the important point to recognize is that the spiritual culture of ancient India, the Vedic culture recommends that we live as much close to nature as possible. So, when we play around with nature and prepare foods like this, in artificial, by artificial means, then we are playing around with nature and what the results of that will be, no one knows. We have had past experiments of playing around with nature backfiring.
We have had a temporary high harvest using fertilizers and artificial means of technological inputs into agriculture. And then later on, lands have become barren and desertification of land has happened. Even GM seeds, which were promised to be the solutions to all problems of food have turned out to be having such serious health concern that in several countries they have been banned.
So, actually, at this stage, researchers may say that they don’t see any health hazards of it. So, that is just because we are playing around with nature, we don’t know what the consequences are likely to be. But the two important points to consider apart from the possible complications when we play around with nature in terms of health or ecology is that we as devotees avoid meat, not just because it involves violence to animals, definitely that is an important concern, but also because it is not according to scripture.
Scriptures do allow meat eating on specific occasions for those who are addicted to it. But overall, they recommend that for people who want to be progressive in the spiritual path, they should avoid meat. So, even when animals are not specifically being killed, the point is that meat has certain characteristics associated with it which are tamasic, so which drag the consciousness down.
So, that’s why the spiritualists will avoid this kind of food. So, Vināpaśuganāt, Prabhupāda would quote the verse that those who are killers of animals that those who are eating animal flesh cannot become attracted to the supreme lord and his pastimes. So, why? Because that animal flesh degrades the consciousness.
So, that degrading property of consciousness will always be there. That’s why devotees will not eat it and devotees will not recommend it to others also. At the same time, if some people are addicted to eating meat and as this involves less violence, so some people with those sensibilities of wanting to cause less violence may prefer this kind of meat over other foods.
And if that is the case, then those sensibilities can be taken into consideration and accepted. So, if it is proven that there is no medical harm to it. But as of now, when the meat is made, actually it is made using animal components.
So, it’s not actually not meat. It’s meat only because there are animal components, not just you know there is serum and other things also. So, therefore, rather than trying to play around with nature to try to do something which we are attached and addicted to doing while trying to escape the normal consequences or the normal process, it is better that we put in that effort or even a fraction of that effort to try to change our desires.
Actually, if even a fraction of that effort which is going into this kind of research, where put in soul research, not just intellectually, scientifically investigating the soul, but also in experientially exploring the spiritual dimension, people will get a much higher spiritual happiness. And that happiness would enable them to become free from these sort of attachments and addictions to meat. So, as devotees, we can see this as an impetus for sharing Krishna Consciousness more vigorously, so that people can get a higher taste.
And then they don’t have to be so desperate in trying to find out newer and newer ways to somehow fulfill lower taste while avoiding its lower consequences. Thank you.