Pentagon slammed over woke plan to use US troops as 'guinea pigs' to eat lab-grown meat

Bio-industrial manufacturing company BioMADE, which is sponsored and funded by the US Department of Defense (DoD), is proposing to feed US soldiers lab-grown meat to “reduce the CO2 footprint of food production,” according to an announcement last month.

BioMADE received a $450 million budget increase from the DoD last year. Stephen Luckowski, the DoD MII Program Director, said in a statement at the time that the investment was a “direct reflection of the Department’s strategy to accelerate technologies that will play critical roles in securing America’s advanced manufacturing capabilities.”

Dr. Douglas Friedman, BioMADE CEO, also said at the time: “BioMADE’s research and development is already yielding significant progress in bio-manufactured proteins, chemicals, fabrics, rubber, and more.”

And now, the company is proposing to grow food - including meat - for US soldiers using “novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein,” according to the announcement.

The plan also includes “production of nutrient-dense military rations via fermentation processes” and “utilizing one carbon molecule (C1) feedstocks for food production.”

The production of lab-grown meat is still in experimental phases, as it is grown in a lab from animal cells with the aid of other chemicals and has become somewhat of a controversial and moral issue.

BioMADE claimed that lab-grown food products will reduce the Pentagon’s carbon footprint, which is a priority for the US military as it pursues a Biden-administration mandate to address climate change.

In addition, BioMADE is soliciting proposals for “processes that convert greenhouse gasses” and “projects that develop bioproducts useful in mitigating the negative environmental impacts either regionally or globally,” including “bioproducts that can be used to prevent or slow coastal erosion.”

Some critics of the company’s plan have slammed the administration for making US soldiers “guinea pigs” in an experimental test.

Jack Hubbard, executive director at the Center for the Environment and Welfare, said to the Free Beacon: “Taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund the lab-grown meat sector. Our troops deserve better than to be served lab-grown meat, produced in bioreactors with immortalized cells and chemicals.

“Unfortunately, this effort is being driven by an agenda that is political and anti-farmer. Our soldiers should never be used as guinea pigs.”

But supporters of the project said US national security hinges on addressing climate change and pursuing new technologies.

Matt Spence, a former DoD official, wrote in a 2021 Slate piece: “One of the most immediate, politically feasible, and high-impact ways to [address climate change] is for the US government to invest in and accelerate alternative ways to produce meat.”