If it makes you feel better, you can label my preference however you see fit dear internet stranger. I merely pointed out that not everyone who eats meat does it strictly to ingest a specific combination of proteins.
Some of the replies seem to imply that life is some abstract combination of chemicals. Just do a double blind test, and be "unable to believe it's butter". Once neuralink is up to spec, plug in, be happy, and "free of suffering".
I believe there is much to be done to reduce suffering, and it's a worthy goal, primarily for humans, and also for animals. One animal killing another for food is not on that list of you ask me. The problem is that we do treat animals very poorly, at tremendous scale, but that is not the only way. In my opinion there is nothing ethically or morally wrong to kill an animal for consumption. We're still (barely) free enough to disagree ;)
You've entirely skipped answering the actual question, though.
If the taste, appearance, etc. of a lab-grown ribeye - perhaps they grow an entire headless, brainless cow and ensure it manages to get exercise - is identical, would your preference still be the one that required a thinking creature to die?
