The Virtues of Cultivated Meat

Abstract Most ethicists defending cellular agriculture draw upon consequentialism or deontology. There has been no thoroughgoing virtue-ethical defence. In this paper, I explore three sets of reasons that the virtue ethicist could draw upon to suggest that virtuous individuals would support a cultivated meat industry. First, compassion and honesty might speak in favour of cultivated meat as well as (or even instead of) vegetarianism. Second, understandingness and hospitableness might speak in favour of supporting cultivated meat for others. Third, openness and grace might speak against being a picky eater, and consequently, on balance, in favour of a diet containing cultivated meat.