I've worked for quite a few years in research (biomedicine). I did my phd and my postdoc and I knew from day 1 that I wouldn't like to use laboratory animals or participate in any study that uses them. Although I understand that even the animals themselves may gain from that (many vet drugs have started as human drugs etc) my personal opinion is a no-go.

So I was happy to use cell culture. In a cell culture (at least the type of culture I'm using) you have a cell line (a vial full with cells of a particular kind and of the same type) that is brought to you by a company. I've mostly worked with human cell lines. You don't actually hurt anyone because these cells multiply endlessly so you don't have to take again and again for more sample. So I was happy. I was doing my research using cells. But nope, I was wrong

Most cell culture require three things: a nutrient medium (can be done in a lab, nothing cruel), a combination of antibiotics and FBS.

What's an FBS? It stands for Fetus Bovine Serum. when these animals are slaughtered for food they draw all their blood and then centrifuge it to take the serum. They are not killed for that as far as I understand it, it's rather a by product. But still it's awful. I'm trying to use chemically defined media (which means they don't have FBS) but it's not that effective. So I'm just sad and troubled about it.

EDIT: Maybe I didn't put this right but the post is about cell cultures used in research to study cancer and other diseases not about cultivating meat or anything related to food products