The law says that, Any form of sapient eating was outlawed in Yamatai.
Any form. Yamatai would rather see their soldiers -starve- to death behind enemy lines then even think about eating a Mishhuvythur Ration that may have. Somehow I doubt they'll go 'Oh civilians can eat all this stuff' when they won't even allow their own soldiers to eat rations when it means life or death.
In real life, I would jump for an opportunity to go eat somewhere that promised me the chance to eat ethically pure dead people. Because I love eating ethically dubious dead animals, I think I can handle eating people-- and I love to try new things.
You may jump at that but over 75% of the world would -not- be okay with that. I for one would feel sick if I was to ever consume a dead person.
What if these vat-grown meats were basically delicious bio-engineering monstrosities? For instance, some DNA was doctored to tell cells to divide in such a way that a flower-shaped structure of conjoined chicken wings were produced in the vat. No such creature has any limb like this, so you can't really say it's a crime against nature to eat something which doesn't exist.
Are they Sapient? Are they at any point in their life span able to think on level of a human if let to live? You are comparing a sapient being to animals that are quite different. You have to understand how human psychology works to understand exactly how this would effect someone. People, who think, feel, have -morals- would be outraged by this idea if it ever came to light that they were eating -people- whether it was different or not. A sapient being, such as a Neko, or a Nepleslian, is not the same as a bunch of chicken wings in a vat.
If that's permissible, then say we use a pinch of data from Elysian DNA to tell the whole thing to be bigger and meatier? It's not really Elysian wings, the same way apes aren't really humans. Again, it's also a construction which never occurs in nature; so you're not really eating anything except a set of instructions some DNA gave to some cells.
Use any part of an Elysian and I guarantee you you'll have a racial war involved against Neko Burger, thats not a threat, but its just common knowledge that Elysians are extremely honorable and dedicated people. They wouldn't even come close to allowing Plebeians to be put through this process and thats literally the lowest of the low that you can be in Elysian Society. Using any form of DNA from an Elysian, and allowing them to find out about it, would be very detrimental to your cause.
However; if those things are permissible, what's to say it's not permissible to use DNA harvested from a willing candidate to clone a bunch of 'prosthetic' limbs for that individual? And if you can do that, why can't you eat them? Would the person who had the prosthetics grown be allowed to eat their own imitation flesh? Would they be allowed to share it with a friend? ("Taste my wings, Shuzen. Aren't they good?")
First of all I wouldn't really say those things were permissible. But let me pose this question to you. If you were given a dead arm and told to eat it would you? That is clearly the same thing as being given a 'prosthetic' arm grown in a Vat its, DNA thats disconnected from the body, which means its 'dead'. Willing candidate or not, Cannibalism is Cannibalism, whether its vat grown, willingly harvested or even if someone in a Will said they wanted their body used to feed homeless people. So no, I'd have to say that based on Yamataian Law, and many factions outlooks on Cannibalism to begin with, that no. You can't eat them, no you can't allow the person who grew the prosthetics to eat their own flesh, and no, they would not be able to share it with a friend.
You see, all these things could be avoided if kept in the secret of their house, but -you- are asking to put this out on market on several different planets without realizing how much of an outrage this would cause to billions upon billions of people in each world. Your Neko Burger would never ever logically even take off to making it to another world, or even past its first restaurant the moment the Governments realized you were serving sapient food. It doesn't matter what OOcly we think, in the end its what the setting would do, and that setting would destroy any chance of Neko Burger going anywhere, if it sold Sapient Food.
The problem with these sorts of moral judgments is that they wander into a philosophical gray area. Where does any government draw the line at 'sapient'? Could Nekoburger use biological data gathered from various races as the basis for vat-grown meats if they were heavily genetically modified? Could Nekoburger adapt existing designs with DNA from sentient races for a better product? I think, in order to really finish this company, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. It's not really the submitter's fault if people can't draw that line. I would be disappointed to see this submission rejected over that without some more clarification as to what's permissible and what's not-- and why those things are the way they are. "You shouldn't have to ask." Is also not a valid response, I think. With the technology existing in our setting, this kind of thing should've come up sooner if we're honest. In my opinion, this is probably something that will happen sooner or later on Earth anyway.
I reiterate my points up above, If the thing looks Sapient, is capable of even the smallest amount of sapient thought, or is from another sapient being, then I think that is where the government would draw the line. No, they could not use biological data from various races because as stated above again, the idea is morally incomprehensible to such races -especially- the Elysians, the Elysians would most likely be one of the -biggest- enemies to this franchise. As I've stated before Yamatai is more than willing to let their soldiers die over eating Mishhu based Rations that might have neko's in them...
MIGHT have neko's in them, theres never a guarantee, but yet because of that possibility they would prefer to let their soldiers starve and die horrible deaths over eating it. Why -why- would they allow a business that goes against that? And why would the populous allow it considering it goes against their laws?
Long story short, the populous has no logical reason to accept this, and their morals would effect the growing of the business, and Neko Burger would most likely -never- reach the levels you desire it to see, at best it would probably be some crummy outshack over in Mishuu territory because the populous, while not played, is indeed its own force and life. They all have their morals, and over 70% of the people in the known factions would be against something like this.
This being said however, I'm far from a master of Yamataian/Nepleslian/Lor/Whatever Else Law.
In fact the people who -do- have that knowledge haven't even given this thing a second look, so whats that say?
@Wes @DocTomoe @Koenig808 @Nashoba @Aendri @Kyle
These are the people you need to convince, They are the ones who hold majority control over the known factions and so far two of them have said no. The acceptance of eating sapient people, even vat grown and brain dead is highly unlikely to be accepted by any populous in the factions for reasons stated above. As for your comment on 'This will probably be something that happens sooner or later on earth'... That won't be for a very, very long time. While the peoples morals are skewered, Cannibalism is something that is still
WILDLY taboo and something that is severely frowned upon even in the most primitive of countries. The only place you find such acceptance is in those places where civilized company does not really go. The idea of eating people as a total is morally sickening to a majority of the civilized world.
I would personally rethink this, but in the end, you can try to do what you want, but I think that this idea isn't going to fly simply due to the sapient part. I'm honestly not even sure -why- its that big of a deal to remove the sapient food, and replace it with something else. The fact both of you are pushing so hard makes it seem like you want to do it simply because you want to get away with it, rather then actually contribute important additions to the website as a total.
I honestly have no issue with any other part of the idea, except that one part. I'm not a setting approver though.