It seems likely that
killing animals for meat consumption is one of those admittedly very long transitional periods in
the human story, and some people feel it will probably be an improvement when we can produce our own meat
in the lab, artificially synthesising the protein, fat and carbohydrates that
make up the meat’s constituents.
But what we mustn't overlook is that the reason tens of millions of animals are used in livestock production each year, and the reason they occupy a lot of the Earth’s land and require a lot of resources themselves, is not because we are all clumsily disregarding the climate, it’s because there are no viable, affordable alternatives that can presently improve upon the resources that meat-eating on a global scale requires.
Activism like vegetarianism and veganism increases demand for different products and changes behaviour, to which the market has responded. For the meat eaters, when lab-produced meat becomes cheaper to provide than farmland meat, many suppliers will switch to it. Given that livestock animals are bred for human consumption, then if it takes off, a switch to lab-based meat will reduce the number of livestock animals, thereby reducing resources required to feed animals and land required for their habitat.
This pattern isn’t unique to meat production, of course - it reflects a broader principle in technological progress, where social pressure can raise awareness but rarely substitutes for scalable efficiency. I explained the underlying mechanism in a paper on power laws and parsimony, and this casts lots of doubt on the success of trying to edge these things along before we are scientifically, technologically and economically ready to do so.
This also follows another rule of thumb in economics - that if it’s beneficial for suppliers to do something that reduces their own costs, resources and labour, they are already incentivised to do so, because suppliers generally respond to cost incentives (though factors like taxation, subsidies, consumer preferences, and regulation can delay technological shifts even when more efficient options exist).
Britain is struggling a lot right now from lack of growth, and much of this is to do with the present systemic misallocation of resources that artificially raises the price of energy, and drives policies that have serious negative unintended consequence. Alas, the situation will only worsen if we don't elect politicians who have the will and competence to reverse it.
