# Cultured Meat

Explore how cultured meat intersects with Mormon Transhumanist values—ethical stewardship, compassion, and technology shaping a more humane future for all.

[Image: Advocates of cultured meat argue it can reduce harms tied to slaughter, but energy use and purification steps remain central to the technology’s environmental assessment.]

Cultured meat is animal tissue grown in a controlled environment from cellular samples, entirely eliminating traditional animal slaughter from the production cycle. By extracting a small sample of muscle or stem cells from a living animal and feeding them a nutrient medium in a bioreactor, producers cultivate tissue that can be prepared and eaten like conventional meat. 

For Latter-day Saints, the technology intersects directly with Restoration theology regarding animal stewardship, the shedding of blood, and the economics of Zion. The term "cultured" derives from the Latin *colere*, "to tend or cultivate." Evaluating this technology requires examining whether cultivating cells fulfills the divine mandate to tend the earth or violates the boundaries of natural creation, and whether its deployment alleviates suffering or merely consolidates corporate wealth.

## Flesh and Blood in Scripture

[Image: After the Flood, God gave Noah flesh for food but reserved the lifeblood of the animal for Himself (Genesis 9:3–4).]

Scriptural frameworks grant humanity the use of animal flesh while strictly reserving the life of the animal to God. Following the Flood, God established a dietary law with Noah: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you," paired immediately with a restriction: "Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat" (Genesis 9:3–4). In this framework, the Hebrew *basar* (flesh) is given for sustenance, while the *nephesh* (life or soul, carried in the blood) belongs exclusively to God.

Joseph Smith’s translation of Genesis heightens the severity of this restriction, framing animal life as a conditional grant: "Surely, blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands" (JST, Genesis 9:11).

Modern revelation reinforces this duality. Addressing the ascetic practices of the Shakers, who forbade the eating of meat entirely, Doctrine and Covenants 49 affirms that meat is ordained for human use. However, the subsequent verses immediately attach a severe warning to that permission: "Wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need" (D&C 49:21). The theological baseline permits consumption of meat but demands accountability for the manner it is obtained.

## The Word of Wisdom and Living Souls

The Word of Wisdom further constrains the use of meat, establishing a principle of sparing consumption rooted in the spiritual nature of animals. Doctrine and Covenants 89 declares that the flesh of beasts and fowls is "ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly," and specifies that it is pleasing to God if they are used "only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine" (D&C 89:12–13). While frequently interpreted as purely physiological health advice, the Book of Moses provides the doctrinal foundation for this restraint: the animals formed in Eden "were also living souls" (Moses 3:19).

Because animals possess spirits, their death extracts a spiritual cost. Joseph Smith demonstrated this ethic during the Zion's Camp march in 1834, instructing members not to kill rattlesnakes found in camp or any animal along the trail unless absolutely necessary for survival. Cultured meat presents a novel intersection with these teachings: it offers a mechanism to consume *basar* (flesh) without the shedding of *nephesh* (blood/life), potentially satisfying the scriptural permission for consuming meat while entirely bypassing the violence condemned in Genesis and the Doctrine and Covenants.

## Cultivation, Cost, and the Table of Zion

[Image: Cell cultivation may extend the Edenic charge to "dress" and "keep" the garden. Whether it serves Zion depends on its true environmental cost and on who owns the cell lines.]

If cultured meat scales successfully, it will separate the consumption of flesh from slaughter. However, evaluating the technology requires scrutinizing its environmental reality and economic architecture through a transhumanist lens.

Theological critics often argue that cultivating animal tissue in a bioreactor subverts the natural order of creation. Conversely, Mormon transhumanists and advocates of technological stewardship view cell cultivation as an extension of the Edenic mandate to "dress" and "keep" the garden (Genesis 2:15). If human beings are called to be co-creators with God, using technology to end mass animal slaughter aligns with the celestial trajectory of the earth, wherein enmity between man and beast ceases.

Yet the material realities of cultured meat complicate its utopian promise. Early production models relied heavily on fetal bovine serum—extracted from slaughtered pregnant cows—defeating the cruelty-free premise, though several firms have since developed plant-based or synthetic growth media. Furthermore, a 2024 University of California, Davis study suggests that the energy-intensive purification of these growth media could currently result in a carbon footprint exceeding that of conventional beef.

The economic model poses a more direct challenge to Restoration ideals. The city of Enoch was defined by having "no poor among them" (Moses 7:18). A food system reliant on patented cell lines, proprietary bioreactors, and licensed growth media threatens to consolidate agricultural power into the hands of a few biotechnology firms, transforming independent farmers and poorer nations into dependent consumers. A technology belongs to the vision of Zion only to the degree that it distributes its benefits equitably. The moral viability of cultured meat will depend not just on whether it spares animal life, but on whether its environmental costs are transparent and its yields are accessible to the many rather than hoarded by the few.

*See also*: [Bioengineering](/topical-guide/bioengineering), [Ethics](/topical-guide/ethics), [Health](/topical-guide/health), [Longevity](/topical-guide/longevity), [Nature/Natural](/topical-guide/naturenatural), [Precision Fermentation](/topical-guide/precision-fermentation)