Manufactured Meat on Its Way to the Mainstream?

I love a good steak, as well as chicken, fish, pork, shrimp, and many other animal products. Admittedly though, with the exception of a small portion of my seafood intake, I’m well away from the process of actually procuring and processing this food. Perhaps if I experienced it up close I’d be less enthusiastic about the whole experience.

As reported on NBC News, there is a possible alternative on the horizon. Lab-grown meat, which may have seemed like a fantasy only a few years ago — though was predicted in a 1932 essay by Winston Churchill — is now a reality, and several companies are rushing to take this product to market. As seen in the video below, startup Memphis Meats is producing artificially-grown chicken and duck, allowing people to enjoy meat without the slaughter of animals.

The concept of eating this type of protein might seem strange to use now, but as production ramps up, costs, as well as maybe our collective mindset will change. The first artificial meat, a hamburger made by Mark Post, a professor in the Netherlands, cost about $330,000, but the price for this type of beef has now fallen to $30 per pound. Though still expensive, that kind of exponential cost reduction can’t be ignored, and the potential to grow animal proteins without some of the waste associated with traditional methods is an exciting, if perhaps slightly unnerving, idea.

Who knows, this type of “ranching” may even be analogous to how the transistor, invented in the 1940s, has plummeted in price and size, and revolutionized society in ways unimaginable before!