This will answer your first question:<p>"[b]So far the scientists have not tasted it[/b], but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time."
The lab of the United States Congress has had them beaten to this discovery for years now.<p>On a serious note, I can see great potential for this, but the question is raised: Does the damage caused by creating the input outweigh the benefits of the output?<p>What is necessary to create it, and is it worth it monetarily? Does it truly decrease suffering or is there some aspect we are missing?
I read most of the thread here but not all, so I hope I'm not repeating anything yet said: I'm convinced that once we can produce meat rather than butchering animals, why in the world would anybody want to farm animals? I guess cows and pigs would be the next animals going to be extinct soon.<p>So I doubt it's that a good idea to be able to produce meat.
Yet another petri-dish I can not enjoy :-(<p>Seriously, this might be good news for people concerned about animal welfare or about the CO2 emissions of livestock.
"Shmeat is inescapable future of humanity!"<p><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/221975/march-17-2009/world-of-nahlej---shmeat" rel="nofollow">http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/22197...</a><p>(Skip to 1:00 for relevant segment)