This is a very thin article. Wired has a few in-depth articles on the subject:<p>- <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/10/nerds-cattle-food-technology-will-save-world/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2016/10/nerds-cattle-food-technology-w...</a><p>- <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-impossible-burger/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/story/the-impossible-burger/</a><p>- <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/07/lab-grown-meat-coming-win-haters/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2016/07/lab-grown-meat-coming-win-hate...</a><p>- <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/navigating-the-uncanny-valley-of-food/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/story/navigating-the-uncanny-valley-of...</a><p>The reality is that currently lab grown meat is extremely expensive (thousands of dollars per pound) and we don't even know if we can bring the cost down to a level competitive with cows.<p>Impossible Foods, however, is already making an impact. They make "burger" meat purely from plants by mixing thing up and adding fake "blood".<p>They're already shipping (there are 8 restaurants in SF alone that offer their burgers, <a href="https://www.impossiblefoods.com/locations/" rel="nofollow">https://www.impossiblefoods.com/locations/</a>).<p>People seem to like their stuff (reportedly in some restaurants their burgers outsell the real beef burgers).<p>They just finished their first large scale factory (1 million pounds per year) and are ramping up distribution across US.<p>Cost-wise, they're already comparable with organic beef and there's a clear path to make them cheaper than beef by increasing the scale.<p>In terms of impact and transforming meat industry, Impossible Foods seems to be in much better position.
I’m a meat-eater but my wife is vegan. We’ve been following Impossible Foods for some time and got to finally try one of their burgers last month.<p>As a meat eater who is vegan at home, I think it’s a decent alternative compared to other vegetarian meat-like products, in fact far superior. But it’s definitely not a replacement for the real thing.<p>I have been pretty impressed with the steady innovation in vegetarian / vegan options that give me as good alternatives compared to non. For example, Miyokos cheese is incredible, and far better than any cheese I used to typically eat, and it’s dairy free.<p>I used to eat Boca burgers when I’ve had to and they aren’t great. I’m excited for better options to come into the market.
Imagine a future, lets say in 2040, where lab grown meat is cheap and tasty.<p>-Will future children look back at our current acceptance of the treatment/killing of animals like we look at societal acceptance of slavery? The pictures/videos of some of our factory farms are unbelievable.<p>-Will laws be imposed for the killing of mentally capable animals such as pigs and cows? Some states already outlaw killing/eating certain animals (dogs+cats)[1], and cruelty to animals is illegal almost everywhere. But what is a more cruel punishment than death? I'd rather be tortured and then live the rest of my life than be murdered today.<p>-We can all live perfectly happy, long lives without killing animals today... so why is it okay to kill them today just for our own enjoyment?<p>(I'm not a vegetarian but am ethically conflicted)<p>[1]<a href="https://inhabitat.com/killing-dogs-and-cats-for-meat-is-still-legal-in-44-u-s-states/" rel="nofollow">https://inhabitat.com/killing-dogs-and-cats-for-meat-is-stil...</a>
Unless this stuff is cost-competitive with the cheapest meat out there, it won't change anything.<p>The vast majority of people still buy their food solely based on what's most affordable, with little to no room to account for "ethical reasons" beyond that. In that regard, "organic" or "ethical" often amounts to paying double if sometimes quadruple the price of "regular" products.<p>If artificial meat can undercut regularly produced meat, price wise (without tasting too bad), then that could be a real game changer, but until that happens it will remain only interesting to the fringe demographic of people with too much disposable income. Which isn't that big of a demographic and as such will never have the potential to enact the desired environmental impact change.
What I look forward to the most is it will make majority of the farmland obsolete (land is mostly used for growing food for animals anyway). As someone who's living in the area (in Eastern Europe) where there's no decent forest in 100km radius, due to everything being turned into farmland, I can't wait for the era when forests will reclaim those lands.<p>When I cross a bridge on Danube and take a look from the hight (the bridge is quite big and tall) at the countryside I live in, all I can see is a farmland. And I can't help but imagine that only 200 years ago there were forests there, as far as you can see.<p>But once the meat is grown in the lab, I hope that it would stop making financial sense to farm the land for animal food.
Animal farming is such a historical constant, I wonder what the unintended consequences of artificial meat are?<p>How does this ride with the trend for more organic and natural produce? Will artificial meat only be a suitable alternative in cheap or fast foods?
I don't know how to feel about this.<p>I'm definitely worried that no one knows what weird diseases this could cause years from now, and if any research pointing to cancer or other problems has been kept secret (like it's been done before in so many cases).<p>For sure, intensive farming is bad for everybody (besides the farmers, perhaps), and anything that will reduce it is good news IMHO.<p>As for how I'd feel eating lab meat, we only eat meat because most of us haven't seen how animals are kept, what they're fed, and how they're slaughtered (I have at my dad's organic pig farm and it's nothing pretty--and I can't imagine how intensive production looks). So, I guess meat coming from a lab is just as gross/weird as the above, I would probably try it and even get used to it.<p>I'm sure vegetarians will love it--or at least the ones that do it for the animals--as they'll finally be able to eat meat, which is unarguably personal preference but IMHO about 100 times better-tasting than imitation meat (like those burgers you buy at the grocery store).<p>I suspect if it's cheaper I'll get it served at some fast food restaurant, so I'll have a chance to try it.
What about lab dairy?<p>It's completely counterintuitive, but factory farming practices for dairy are arguably as bad if not worse than what is done for meat, and dairy even supports the meat industry (veal).<p>I know there are fake options like Daiya, but it's just not the same.