Ya voi might be on route to be the most metal vegan on the planet.

Okay so, hear me out:

Cultured "lab" meats, are on the horizon. Last year the first of them were approved by the FDA for human consumption. There's some buzz about whether the idea can take hold as a sustainable alternative to the horrors of the meat industry that exists today.

I'm not aiming to opine at length on the merits of this concept, or spend time discussing its economic viability. It promisingly offers product without suffering, but there are some 'gotcha's—more on that later.

There is some really dry reading out there describing how these products are produced, but a friend introduced me to some DIY projects that aim to enable homegrown labmeat. In hindsight I'm not sure I've documented much of it in blog form, but I have a long history of using live and active cultures for various culinary endeavors. From simple lactofermentation to inoculations with Aspergillus and Rhizopus spores, I have a makeshift lab already set up for projects in this space.

Some research found me numerous organizations in the space, and some products that don't appear to exist. But one resource stood out: The Shojinmeat project: "Open-source cell-based meat: Cellular agriculture by citizens". A Japanese nonprofit which—in an absurdly kawaii manner—performs research and publishes resources, and even runs in-person workshops, to engage curious minds without professional- or lab-grade resources. the marketing is a bit much—the CC-licensed mascots and associated visual novel assets are true in the spirit but don't well lend to the project being taken seriously at a glance... I mean, really:

The project appears to still have activity; tracking down a lingering nitter instance has enabled me to glean that the nonprofit's Japanese-language Twitter presence has posts only hours old.

Drilling through some links on the site, and making use of some translation tools, I've tracked down some procedural guides, a DIY incubator (which, from my other projects, I am mostly already equipped for), and the cutest start-to-finish walkthrough I've ever laid eyes upon.

So, this is pretty much everything I need to grow meat at home, right?

So. There's still the matter of source cells. My aforementioned 'gotcha': as the project still requires animal cells (thus far...), it can't technically be considered 'vegan', can it? Furthermore—and while I understand there are alternatives—the most common 'food' for these cultures is a bovine blood serum. But can it be done entirely without materials taken from animals?

Well. One could get consent.

Philosophically, veganism isn't really about the diet. It's about suffering. It's about consent. Our sapience gives us as humans the unique ability to form contracts with each other in a way we are able to recognize as mutually agreed upon. Now, I don't reject the possibility that we can similarly form contracts with other species. We do something like it with household pets; a loving and bidirectionally caring bond can flourish and be understood, albeit ultimately with imbalanced power dynamic. However, nothing is as clear as direct, forward, uncoerced affirmation between two sound-of-mind humans.

One could give consent.

I want to use my own cells for the source culture. I want to grow myself, in a petri dish. Feed it my own blood, if I have to. I want to eat myself. Share myself with others. Share my vision and passion, for a truly vegan animal product—one brought into being with as much care as it lacks duress. Share my very essence—less as a source of food, but as an intimate exchange, and as a form of artistic expression.

I think that isolating the cells will be the most difficult component. As I understand, viable cells are most commonly extracted from bone marrow. I'm not really equipped to DIY that sort of sourcing. There may be less-intrusive methods. Heck, I read that even urine has trace amounts of stem cells. I have plenty of reading to do on what other options there might be. Research will continue, and if I find the means, a new aspect of the Vivivivisection project will manifest.