The ethics of cellular agriculture

This chapter provides an overview of key ethical dilemmas surrounding cellular agriculture. Starting with an overview of rights- and utilitarian-based ethical theories, the classic example of the trolley problem is used as a vignette to showcase these theories. Next, the chapter examines the history of animals for food and ensuing animal welfare movements, followed by the continued application of the trolley problem illuminating rights and utilitarian ethical tensions of various topic areas surrounding cellular agriculture. These include the socioenvironmental impacts of cellular agriculture, agricultural labor and livelihoods, and diffusion of technology in non-Western contexts. Finally, the chapter closes with a discussion of the moral imagination and techniques to practice effective ethical communication on this technology. Ultimately, the aims of this chapter are to discuss prevailing and prospective ethical and socio-cultural issues surrounding cultivated meat production in different contexts and to introduce a way of approaching them in a robust and constructive manner.