From the yeast’s perspective, these are genes which code for a massive waste of energy and, as such, are quite maladaptive. If anything, you have to isolate the strain so that it isn’t out competed by wild types and its own mutant varieties (the ones which turn off the acquired genes.)
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And we promise we will use all money from “tell us why we’re wrong” contributions for research into ethics, legal and societal issues relating to the project.
I bet they murder bacteria without even a second thought!
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I really just don’t get it; milk is a product of animals, and this new cheese is made with a product of animals. Granted, they are really tiny, but they’re still animals. How is this new cheese more “ethical” than the old cheese except as a matter of scale?
I think the Vegan Police would find this to be a violation.
Yeast are fungi.
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Um, no.
Animals are multicellular eukaryotic heterotrophs from the kingdom Animalia.
Yeasts are unicellular eukaryotic chemoorganotrophs from the kingdom Fungi.
Not the same thing at all.
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I’m still a little conflicted with one facet of the Vegan lifestyle. The goal is to not exploit the animal kingdom for our personal gain. Violence against animals is wrong. But it’s okay to SIMULATE that violence in the form of vegan burgers, vegan chicken nuggets, vegan ribs, vegan sausage, etc. Why is this okay?
I want to try some vegan cheese. I really do.
Two thoughts: first what will this taste like? My suspicion is something like flavorless Japanese cheese. Secondly is there a plan to take the process from the garage level to a commercial manufacturing level?
@juul You mention “research into ethics, legal and societal issues” but which version of these things? Not to put too fine a point on the matter but as an orthodox Jew, my perspective on those three may well differ from the main stream or counter culture. While many of us avoid most cheese for lack of a kosher certification due to use of animal rennet or other issues, my speculation is that your end product would not be classified as cheese from the kashrut viewpoint since it is not conventionally dairy based but as something new and thus requiring a different standard of review.
I can’t stand this stupid argument.
I’m a meat-eater. I eat my steaks rare/English and as a German slightly spiced raw ground pork is a normal part of my diet. Usually the only thing that get on the meat I fry are a bit of salt and olive oil.
Most of the stuff you mention are just recipes to make otherwise unusable parts of a slaughter edible or or extend the shelf life .
Just recipes. There’s nothing special about them just because they can be applied to meat.
Otherwise you better stop putting sauces and spices on meat, because that simply simulates vegetarian recipes.
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Oh, right. I’m an idiot.
I remember hearing a whole science program dedicated to fungi. They are so strange compared to other “life” that It made them sound like they were really from another planet. A planet where, no doubt, there was no butter or lettuce. It made me sad for the ones who grow up on earth, only to end up in a salad or chicken marsala.
I love a slightly undercooked piece of flesh as much as the next guy. The point I make is that vegan jerky is meant to simulate, in flavor, appearance and texture, beef jerky. So in my mind, it simulates exploitation of an animal. Why is this okay for a vegan? Why isn’t simulated meat as repulsive as meat? It seems to me that it would only be desirable to a vegan who grew up non-vegan, a former non-vegan who might not be completely committed to the cause. Assuming vegans are in it for the politics, not the nutrition, that is.
I’m not a vegan and I eat lots of meat, but the whole point of simulated meat is that you simulate the END product.
Vegans are not against the end products, such as meat or cheese - they’re against the way we make them because it involves mistreatment and exploitation of animals. They would totally eat meat, cheese or eggs if animals didn’t die/suffer/got exploited.
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Ah, that’s simple. Your mind is wrong.
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I like the vegan simulated soylent green, now with 30% more peeeeople flavor.
My favorite is the spicy Italian.
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So No True Vegan would eat this? Not even if they are Scottish? 
Meh, what do I know. You Earth people eat all sorts of weird stuff.
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Well said. That’s the best response I’ve seen to the claim that opposition to GMO is based on fear of science.
I’ve wondered about whether I can properly call myself vegan, since my goal is minimizing the use of animal products, but I don’t regard a total abolition of the use of animal products as ethically necessary or achievable. My concern with the consumption of animal products, in the first place, is ecological; there’s a very high ecological cost to mass production of meat and other animal products.
In the second place, it’s an ethical concern with the nature of industrialized animal husbandry. In particular, it’s the way that complex animals, sentient beings, are treated as mere machines. I believe an essential characteristic of humans is that we tend to feel empathy for things that are not humans, especially complex animals. Industrialized animal husbandry treats animals as machines, and their pain, fear, and obvious suffering is ignored. What does it to us, to deliberately cut ourselves off from our own feelings of empathy?
Milking a cow or gathering chicken eggs are not intrinsically cruel to the animals or unethical, and I think smaller scale animal husbandry could be done in a humane and ethical fashion. But that is not the shape of modern agriculture.
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I feel the same way about kosher bacon simulacra.
Ah, the old Stump The Silly Vegan argument.
It’s actually not tough to understand. The whole point of veganism is to avoid harming animals. They aren’t opposed to eating savory food, they’re opposed to animals dying (or suffering) to provide their lunch. Vegetables are awesome, but vegans like savory, smoky, rich flavors as much as you do, and most of them grew up eating meat. So if they can eat a BLT made with fake bacon, or cook with Quorn “chicken” they can marinate & grill like real chicken, and make the same recipes you enjoy but without hurting animals – that’s ideal. There’s nothing “exploitive” or horrifying about a piece of soy protein that’s been textured and flavored to taste sorta rich and savory and meaty. It’s a nice alternative from, say, carrots.
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