The Frankenburger…good or bad?

August 24, 2013

It has finally happened. Someone (in this case, reseachers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands) has grown a hamburger developed in the lab and cultured from stem cells. The taste test took place a couple weeks ago to rather ho-hum reviews, the consensus being that it had the texture of a conventional beef burger, but the taste was not as appealing due to a lack of fat.

Photo credit One News Page
Photo credit One News Page

But that’s the kind of problem that’s comparatively easy to fix – none of the stem cells had been developed into fat, which is what needs to occur in future to improve the flavour. The real problem will be converting this system for affordable mass production. The 5-oz patty that was served cost over $300,000 to produce.

I have no doubt that, in time, scientists will figure out how to solve those problems; that by the next decade we’ll be able to dine, relatively inexpensively, on beef burgers and steaks that did not require the death of a living creature to produce. My question is: is this truly a worthwhile endeavor?

It certainly has many plusses. For many, the reduction in animal suffering is a significant draw. I know there are many vegetarians, myself included, who gave up meat because of the ethics surrounding killing animals for food when, strictly speaking, it is not necessary to do so to live healthfully. As well, there are more than a few meat-eaters out there who always feel a pang of guilt when they consume animals, but for a variety of reasons are either unwilling or unable to give it up. So, guilt-free meat consumption is not an insignificant reason for this research to continue.

Even more valuable is the environmental impact this could potentially have on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and land use in general. Currently a significant percentage of our agriculture production is used to feed livestock. According to one statistic , it takes on average 6.2 tonnes of feed (much of it corn and soy) to yield 1 tonne of edible carcass meat, making meat consumption a rather inefficient use of our resources. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced from the animals themselves. It is a well-known fact that the environmental impact of worldwide livestock production exceeds the impact of cars and other methods of transport. The single fastest, and most effective intervention we could make to mitigate the effects of global warming would be to become vegetarian…or at the very least to significantly reduce our meat consumption. Unfortunately, there are many people who don’t want to hear that, and large industries that would be at risk, so beyond the push for “Meatless Mondays” in the US (which has not been sanctioned by the USDA for this very reason), little has been done on this front. But I digress…

So, lots of benefits. But seriously, though, does this make sense? Are many meat-eaters going to go for it? Are they going to see this as meat? Because really, no matter how good it gets, it’s not going to taste exactly  the same. Heck, meat from different parts of the country, or grass-fed versus grain-fed meats taste different to some. Will we see the “it’s only meat if an animal died to produce it” mentality?

Does that sound crazy to you? Having been a meat-eater for most of my life, I know what meat tastes like, and I can say that many of the veggie-concoctions on the market really do taste remarkably like meat. In fact, I’ve had to double-check with the cook a few times to make sure that I wasn’t accidentally served the wrong meal. That said, I know more than a few meat-eaters who visibly cringe at the mere idea of consuming a mock-meat. (You’d think I was offering brussels sprouts and beets, with a side bitter melon,,,apologies to fans of those rather unloved vegetables) What’s the difference? If it looks like meat, tastes like meat, and is often healthier than meat, why such an aversion? Honestly, I just don’t get it.

To sum up, I think this is a big waste of resources. The people who are really affected by animal suffering, or environmental causes, or who are willing to concede that animals don’t have to die to produce a tasty, nutritious product are the ones for whom this project is designed; but those are the same people who would be willing to consume less meat, and maybe eat some meat alternates instead. It’s convincing the others that will be a challenge.

What do you think? Am I being unfair to my meat-eating friends? Would you be willing to try a frankenburger? Can you explain why the carnivores’ collective shudder over the idea of eating a meat substitute?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

By Renu Arora June 25, 2025
Discover how the Accelerated Release Technique (ART) uncovered a past life trauma behind a client’s workplace exhaustion — and how rewriting that story brought emotional freedom.
By Renu Arora May 22, 2025
Even if you don't know it
By Renu Arora April 11, 2025
More important than exercise or nutrition in managing weight is the emotional connection. This is just one example of the myriad causes for excess weight.
By Renu Arora March 23, 2025
This is a story that recently took place in a class with one of my students. We had been discussing one of the most important things to take care of at the start of a session: reducing interference. When we start a healing session, we always connect with our guidance team (i.e. Spirit Guides) to make sure that they are "on board" with what we want to work on. There are a few reasons they may try to stop us. Sometimes they are merely reflecting back to us a belief system, of where we were unaware, that needed addressing. And at other times, they could literally have their own trauma being triggered, and that needs to be healed before we can move forward. Either way, without the cooperation of our guidance team, trying to solve issues can take far longer than it should because we are so vulnerable to their potential sabotage. More recently, I have added to the Accelerated Release Technique a requirement to check on the client's Inner Child as well for the very same reasons. I was demonstrating "how to start a session" using this one student as a volunteer and, not surprisingly, as this always seems to happen when I am hoping to demonstrate a new concept, we immediately got to see interference in action: my student's Inner Child decided to be a hindrance. We began the session with a particular problem in mind, but her Inner Child was having none of it! When asking if we would be allowed to receive "concise and timely answers" during the session, we received a definitive "no." Put another way, her inner child was literally telling us that she was going to put forward answers that would take us on a meandering route to our solution. Assuming that this Inner Child just needed some healing so that she would then acquiesce and step aside so we could continue to address our intended issue, I continued along that vein, finding out what the Inner Child needed. It was only a matter of a few minutes when the word "allergies" popped up and I was led to start shifting that energy type. And then it hit me. My student has mentioned in the past that she has a gluten sensitivity and that that was something she was keen to work on eventually eliminating with ART. OMG! Her Inner Child basically wanted to be able to eat a cookie! (And bread, and pie, and cake...and all the yummy foods she had felt she was missing out on.) She literally hijacked the session because that was what she wanted us to work on - and because she had the power to do so. That revelation came as class was ending, so apparently my student's homework is to work on her gluten sensitivity, or else her Inner Child will never give her any peace... And as her teacher, I can't wait to hear how it goes! Do you feel like your Inner Child might be running the show in your life? If you'd like to take back your own power, book a Discovery Call with me and I can help get you back on track. Or consider learning the Accelerated Release Technique and you can do it yourself. Click here for more details on the process.
By Renu Arora March 7, 2025
Wondering if you're crazy? You're not. You don't have a medical problem, you've got a spiritual one. And the answer to heal lies in your mind itself.
By Renu Arora January 23, 2025
So she could finally get a good night's sleep
By Renu Arora August 30, 2024
The voices in your head aren't you. I was in the middle of doing prep work for completely overhauling my ART training over the next month and I realized that the above was something that I understood from the thousand(s?) of sessions I have done, but have never put into words. The voices in your head are not you. There is only one YOU in your head. That's the one THINKING. Asking questions. Making decisions. The one who knows what you want and don't want. So, who is calling you names? Making nasty comments? Saying things that you know aren't true? Or aren't how you really feel? I refer to these chatterboxes in your head collectively as "the peanut gallery." They fall into one of 3 categories. Something that was a part of you, but split off and is no longer "attached". Something that was never part of your energy. Or it's your inner child. If it's your inner child, that is the childlike part in every one of us that keeps us young, and they need some soothing. We all live with a younger version of ourselves inside. But this younger version has it's own needs and wants, and you have to learn to work together to live harmoniously! If it was never a part of you, it's some kind of energetic interference. Someone else - whether living or dead - is invading your space. It could even be your spirit guides themselves, believing that they are protecting you with that belief, or they themselves need healing and they are imposing their beliefs upon you. Most of the time, we just take the few moments we need to heal them so they no longer feel it necessary to interfere. And then there are the ones that were once a part of you. These are typically referred to as Alters. These were formed out of trauma. As a result of a traumatic experience, the body coped by splitting off the trauma into a separate segment in an attempt to "contain" it. These segments have their own consciousness and belief system...therefore they no longer truly represent YOU. People with dissociative identity disorder (DID. Formerly called multiple personality disorder) have Alters that are so imbued with trauma energy that they can occasionally "take the drivers seat" and during those times, "You" are relegated to the background. As such, people with DID will often have large gaps in their memory when an Alter had taken over. The wild thing is, everyone has Alters. It's only in DID that the trauma is so overwhelming for an Alter to be able to take control. You can speak to Alters. Find out what they need in order to heal. Once they are healed, they can integrate back into the whole. (ie. become part of you once again) And once you address all of the "personalities" that have appeared, the peanut gallery finally becomes quiet. For this week's story, while I was working with a client she suddenly shared that she felt like people want what she has, and wanted her to suffer...while all she wanted was peace. Her subconscious told me that that feeling wasn't the one we were supposed to work on, though. That that was actually symbolic of something else in her life...somewhere else that there was suffering and she wanted peace. She then told me "there's a part of me that wants to die." She clearly hears it say "I want to die." We both know that's not what she really wants. It's a voice in her head. In moments, I discover it's an Alter. This Alter was suffering and wanted peace. This is what we were being directed to heal. Once they are discovered, healing an Alter is actually rather straightforward and simple. So within a few minutes, the peanut gallery was quiet. She no longer needs to hear those words in her head again. What a relief! If you find this as fascinating as I do, then consider learning ART! There is a 5-week, live training course with me (conducted over zoom) and a couple of smaller prerequisite courses. You can find all the information about when the various courses are offered and their pricings by clicking here . You will be amazed by what you learn!
By Renu Arora June 30, 2024
Your subconscious knows exactly how long it will take you to heal.
By Renu Arora January 24, 2024
This is a short one... A client came in for her first session with me, and as I typically do for an intro session, we planned to find and heal a life event for her. This generally starts off with us needing to find out a belief that the client is hanging onto as a result of the experience. I got my clues, but none of it meant anything to my client. I checked into see if we were being blocked, and I didn't see any issues, but still no spark of insight came to her. Worse yet, nothing was coming to me either. I usually get an intuitive hit to guide the conversation but this time, nada. Then it occurred to me to ask if she and I were still connected. I got a "no." No?? I tried again to connect and found, in a nutshell, that her spirit guides had booted me out! It sometimes happens that I can't connect initially, but I don't generally get kicked out mid-session like that. So I asked what her guides needed to allow us to move forward and it turns out that they needed an apology from me! I can only guess that I ticked them off in a past life. 😕 I apologized. Thankfully they accepted. And I quickly found that the information that I had received earlier had been completely false and we had to start from scratch. Happily, they didn't interfere again and my client and I went on to have a great session. 😃 Today's tip: if you are doing your own healing work and you find your intuition shut down, verify that you are actually connected! And don't be surprised if somebody's grudge from a past life comes up to be resolved. :) If you are interested in learning more about whether ART is right for you, either to learn for yourself, or to experience as a client, book a discovery call with me and let's chat!
By Renu Arora December 31, 2023
Before the year ends, I've got one last story to share for 2023. Today's client reached out to do a session with me because she felt that something was amiss and her intuition told her that I could help. She was finding herself unusually angry with her husband. She's not by nature an angry person so this unnatural rage bubbling up whenever she would see or even think about him was especially disconcerting. Connected to her anger, she also had this strange feeling that he himself was feeling distant and resentful towards her. To be honest, it was a confusing session. I didn't really know where we were going with it, but I always maintain trust in the subconscious and that it knows more than I do - and that everything would make sense by the end. I was not disappointed! My client and I reasoned that since she was feeling his resentment, it made sense that he was the one needing the healing. So, I tapped into his energy and immediately found a huge cluster of trapped emotions and beliefs - disgust, a lack of control, a belief that he couldn't be happy, that his happiness was dependent on others, not being good enough, and more. We cleared all of that after which she sensed an improvement in the resentment, but not yet to the feeling of him being distant. Add to that, she was also now feeling a lack of love, and not being wanted. Even more new, unusual emotions for her. So we kept going. With a little more digging, all of the pieces started falling into place. It turns out that she and her husband have a beautiful daughter whom they adore, but needed medical intervention to conceive. My client knew she was destined to have another child - she had heard this child communicate with her before, during previous sessions with me and at other times, too. Recently she had broached the subject with her husband about starting the process again for this second child and he had not shown any interest. That's when it all clicked. NONE of the emotions my client had been experiencing were her own. The anger, resentment, disconnect, lack of love or anything else...those all belonged to not-yet-even-conceived Baby #2! All the emotions and beliefs we had healed...those belonged to the baby as well! It made so much sense! This baby was aching to join the family, but dad's lack of interest led to feelings of rejection, anger, and sadness. Wow! No wonder my client was so confused as to what to do. The emotions were so foreign to her, not at all how she usually responds to disappointment, and now we understood why! Shortly after that, a wave of sleepiness hit my client, always signal of a message from someone trying to come through: very clearly, she heard the words "Bring me home now" in her head. Baby #2 was no longer angry or hurt, just insistent that it was their time to make an appearance. And with that, my client felt totally better - back to her old self once again. We could both see a visible change in her face - she was smiling from ear to ear. And ready to pass along the message to her husband. 😀 Do you feel like you are behaving out of character? Sometimes your emotions are not your own! Whether they are yours or not, they can be healed so you can feel back to normal once again. Book a session with me and I can help! Happy New Year! See you in 2024!
More Posts