Author's Introduction
- Something in contemporary Western diets must shift, for both moral and ecological reasons. Fortunately, there are alternatives to our current food system – ways of eating that are equally, if not more, nutritious but without the suffering and climate impacts of factory-farmed meat. Unfortunately, many people find these alternatives disgusting.
- I know, because I’ve been one of those people. My interest in disgust began almost two decades ago in graduate school, when I encountered an article describing scientists’ attempts to grow meat without animals. ‘In vitro meat’, now known as ‘cultivated meat’ or ‘lab-grown meat’, involves cultivating muscle tissue in bioreactors, using growth media and scaffolding to create threads of muscle that could then be massed together into hamburger patties or even a steak.
- The idea of growing muscle tissue in labs for human consumption, independently of an animal body, seemed unnatural and repellent. It seemed, in a word, disgusting. But faced with more humane, sustainable options, is disgust a good enough reason to reject them? Is it any kind of reason at all?
Author's Conclusion
- For many eaters today, cheese sits squarely on the side of civilisation. But the example shows that the meanings associated with foods are mutable. Instead of associating entomophagy – or cheese – with something dirty or dystopian, one might opt to frame the practice in terms of novelty, sustainability or understanding Indigenous cuisines. Or reframe the food by relating it to an aspirational identity, such as being an adventurous eater.
- Perhaps most radical of all is the possibility of finding enjoyment in our negative reactions to food. Much as people can take pleasure in horror films or rollercoasters, there’s a kind of pleasure – paradoxical as it might seem – in negative aesthetic experiences like fear, discomfort, maybe even disgust. Food is, after all, a form of entertainment. Today’s diners seek out far-flung restaurants and obscure, hard-to-attain experiences; in the past, elaborate feasts and banquets were designed to surprise, thrill and even frighten guests. Discomfort can push us beyond our comfort zones; embracing the identity of an adventurous eater can help reposition foods: not so much ‘disgusting’ as ‘challenging’ or ‘adventurous’. Anyone who has experienced the thrill of swallowing that first raw oyster will be familiar with the sensation of conquering food fear.
- More than a decade after encountering that first article on ‘in vitro meat’, I found myself in a studio apartment in Manhattan, having my own thrilling experience with that least thrilling of foods: chicken. I stood over the stove, looking at an apparently unremarkable package of shredded chicken. Unremarkable, unless you count the fact that said chicken was produced entirely from cells grown in a bioreactor: chicken without the chicken. As the chicken cooked, I listened to it sizzle and watched it brown. The future of food might be this: a new technology that recreates our most familiar foods. It might be a return to the foods we ate millennia ago. But whatever it is, it won’t be disgusting.
Author Narrative
- Alexandra Plakias is associate professor of philosophy at Hamilton College in New York. She is the author of Thinking Through Food: A Philosophical Introduction (2019) and Awkwardness (2024).
Notes
- Interesting and - I suppose - important. See Wikipedia: Entomophagy. It deserves a second reading.
- As the author points out - there are advantages to 'disgust' and these have been hard-wired by evolutionary pressure, though as is also pointed out, some attitudes are culturally learned or can be overridden.
- As anyone with children or grandchildren knows, they can be very fussy eaters and find almost anything disgusting at one time or another. Some people never grow up.
- But it's important to override disgust where it is mere prejudice; remember the ‘I'm not eating any of that foreign muck’ comments from way back. You can miss out.
- Thinking of insects as terrestrial seafood may be a way in. I enjoy eating escargots - though part of the attraction is disgusting fellow-diners.
- There are – as with most people – genuine food-items that I can’t imagine ever eating – witchetty grubs (Wikipedia: Witchetty grub), or cockroaches (Wikipedia: Cockroach) for instance.
- I can’t see why anyone should find eating artificial meat disgusting, especially if willing to eat down-market chicken nuggets.
- We're referred to:-
→ Aeon: Baggini - The vegan carnivore?
→ Aeon: McAuliffe - Disgust made us human
→ Aeon: Appleton - Insectophilia
→ Aeon: Sebo & Schukraft - Don’t farm bugs
→ "Diamond (Cora) - Eating Meat and Eating People"
- There are a few Aeon Comments, some of which are purely autobiographical – finding X or Y disgusting. Some engage with the paper positively or negatively. One raises an issue briefly alluded to in the Paper – the ethical aspect of insect-farming, should they be sentient creatures. This was covered in "Sebo (Jeff) & Schukraft (Jason) - Don’t farm bugs" (referenced above) and "Lenharo (Mariana) - Do insects have an inner life? Animal consciousness needs a rethink". Also, maybe, "Godfrey-Smith (Peter) - If not vegan, then what?", "Francione (Gary) - We must not own animals" and "Waltner-Toews (David) - Kinship".
- This relates to my Notes on Animals, Animal Rights and, as always, Narrative Identity. Also, maybe, Psychopathology.
Comment:
- Sub-Title: "The future of food is nutritious and sustainable – if we can overcome our instinctual revulsion to insects and lab-grown meat"
- For the full text see Aeon: Plakias - Adjust your disgust.
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025
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