In this post, I will lay out an argument that if we assume technology continues to progress, then at some point veganism becomes inevitable as it becomes possible to create meat and dairy without animals. This argument does not assume a timeline on when this change will happen, whether it’s in 20 years or 200 years, but past a certain level of technological development it becomes increasingly implausible that humanity would continue to raise animals as a means to create food.

Meat without animals

Currently animals are raised and slaughtered because that is simply the production process for meat. At present there is no other way to create meat except via this process. If humans didn’t eat meat we’d similarly no longer raise and slaughter large amounts of animals. Likewise, if it were possible to create meat directly without raising and slaughtering animals then humanity would likewise lose the main argument in favor of farming animals. Furthermore, if it were possible to create meat that’s better nutritionally, better tasting, more efficient, and cheaper all without animals, then at that point it’s hard to imagine what reason the bulk of humanity would have to continue eating animals. In fact, if the majority of humanity is no longer raising and slaughtering animals for food, it may even be made illegal to do so.

If we can agree on the above conditions, then the next step is to determine if those conditions are likely to occur. So, if technology continues to progress, will we find ways of creating meat that is cheaper, healthier, better-tasting, and more efficient than raising and slaughtering animals? There’s no physical reason why meat can’t be produced without an animal, so we know it’s technologically possible. In fact, the company Mosa Meat is already able to create meat from animal cells without raising and slaughtering animals, but at present the meat is about 3x as expensive as meat from animals. Creating meat directly without an animal has a much higher possible efficiency since most of the feed and water that goes into raising an animal does not turn into edible meat. Directly growing meat without animals doesn’t have this problem, so it has a much better theoretical efficiency, and thus it should be possible to create much cheaper lab-grown meat than animal meat in the future.

We can see that meat without animals should be cheaper in the future, but can it ever taste as good and be as nutritious? Again, the answer is yes. With lab-grown meat there’s no limit to the varieties and flavors that are theoretically possible. We can engineer meats that have never existed before, and we can tweak the exact composition of nutrients in those meats to exactly match what’s found in animal meat, or even improve it. There’s no technological reason why any of this should not be possible, so if we assume technology continues to improve then we must also, at some point, gain the ability to create this sort of meat.

Veganism without vegans

Technically, everyone in this future world will be vegan since their food will not be coming from animals. However, the term “vegan” would thus become meaningless. Veganism is inevitable, but in its victory it will lose all meaning and disappear from the public conscientiousness. People will still consume meat and eggs and dairy, but they will just be produced more efficiently without any involvement of animals.

Caveats

This argument assumes that technology will continue to progress. This is, of course, not a certainty. Humanity could annihilate itself, or destroy modern civilization through any number of catastrophes. This argument also does not assume a timeline on when these changes might happen - it could be in 20 years or 200 years. This argument doesn’t also assume that no human will ever kill and eat an animal ever again, only that society on the whole no longer do so. For example, we can say that humans in 2019 no longer commute by horseback, and be correct in 99% of cases. This doesn’t mean that no single human will ever ride a horse as a means of transit in 2019, but on the whole the statement is clearly valid.