HYDERABAD: Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development on Friday strongly favoured promotion of lab-grown meat or ‘clean meat’ instead of regular meat.
Speaking at India’s first summit on ‘Future of protein-Food Tech Revolution,’ at the CSIR-CCMB in Hyderabad, Gandhi said, “It is the most important thing to create alternative sources of meat,” according to The New Indian Express. “We must have clean meat…People are being lynched for taking cows for slaughter. Why this terror?”
The minister said that cattle were “dividing” Hindus and Muslims. “People are not eating meat. Meat is eating people,” reported The Times of India.
Citing a study report, Gandhi said substantial percentages of consumers are ready to accept lab-grown ‘ahimsa’ meat taken from animal cells.
“The survey has found 46 per cent want to buy clean meat regularly and 53 per cent wants to replace conventional meat with clean meat. Cellular meat is already available but has to be commercialised. If we allow other countries to distribute, it will be expensive. We need to bring in a second disruption where animal meat should be replaced with clean meat,” Maneka said, reported IndiaTimes.