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Between the increasing availability of *truly good* vegan meat substitutes and this - the first commercialised vitro meat, It seems like we're in a really exciting time in the development of food science: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time
I continue to be very impressed with the various "meat replacements" I can find on store shelves these days. For highly processed meats, they can be astonishingly close. I had some vegan sausage recently which would have completley fooled me.
And added to that vitro meat offers the promise of real meat with no animals slaughtered, which can displace a lot of things which meat substitutes will struggle to - while they're starting with things like chicken nuggets which are easier, they're going after steaks long term.
There's always the commentary from a certain subset of vegetarians/vegans who are like "why do you need meat substitutes at all?" which sort of comically misses the point?
It's really easy to take a meal and substitute ingredients. It takes time to develop intuition for how you get a taste or texture you're going for entirely with vegetables (and sometimes it's not available at all!)
But also it gives you more options. If you get a craving for chicken nuggets, schnitzel or certain types of sausage, there are vegan options which are so good it's barely even a compromise.
As an omnivore, it's great to be able to just swap things out and have something that's probably healthier, better for the planet, and which more people can eat
And hopefully soon we'll be in the interesting situation where we can have Actual Meat But Now It's Vegan, produced more efficiently with less suffering and less environmental destruction than the old fashioned way, and thats' going to be a truly amazing thing
(The process behind the product being discussed here doesn't achieve either of those goals, but it's early days - the former is partially a matter of scale and the latter is addressed in a newer but not yet certified for human consumption version)
And although it'll feel odd at first, it'll be a truly good thing (especially in the fight against both envirionmental destruction and climate change)
I expect traditional meat to stick around, but long term it'll be much rarer and more expensive, reserved for special occasions
I expect traditional meat to stick around, but long term it'll be much rarer and more expensive, reserved for special occasions
(Of course I don't expect every vegan or vegetarian to suddenly jump into eating vitro meat - eat what tastes or feels good to you! But we're approaching a world where if the reasons are ethical - animal welfare or environmental cost - those will go away)
We can also potentially do some engineering on vitro meat to make it better in some ways than the "original thing." Lower fat? Higher protien? Fortified with certain essential nutrients?
Things become more flexible when you are directly growing the muscle tissue
Things become more flexible when you are directly growing the muscle tissue
As often on these subjects, George Monbiot has a good thread: https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1334061560742998017
