[Shaggy2000]

[flagged]

[amusedcyclist]

Factory farming is truly satanic.

[EngManagerIsMe]

Can you explain a bit more? This seems like basic biology -- cells grow whether they are attached to a cow or not, assuming you provide them with the basic ingredients they need and the environment they need to grow.

[whatshisface]

Most cells will not grow in an infinite uniform lineage, but rather will try to develop into a cow, or stop reproducing at some point because they think they're in an old cow.

[cyberax]

> This seems like basic biology -- cells grow whether they are attached to a cow or not

This is not true. Most cow cells will almost immediately die, unless they are attached to a cow. Even if plenty of nutrients are available.

This is a basic anti-cancer mechanism, cells need to receive specific signals from nearby cells to stay alive. The default state for a cell is "dead".

There are ways to work around that, and the most typical is to use "immortalized" cell lines. Basically, cancerous cells that can grow without bound.