Lab-Grown Beef: A Meat Pie in the Sky?

Cruelty free products abound in our 21st Century market place, from cosmetics to fake fur. But can you imagine a cruelty free filet mignon? It sounds like an oxymoron, or the stuff of a wacky sci-fi flick. But, as this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio explains, lab-grown meat is here and could hit the shelves within your lifetime.

Tom Levitt, British food and farming journalist, recently chronicled the latest innovations in the lab-grown meat industry. At this point, we’re talking about a $300,000 5-ounce hamburger, which begs the question, if and when this is actually developed to scale will it be high-brow fare or protein for the poor? Is this lab-grown meat a viable solution to the significant environmental impact of the global appetite for beef? How do animal rights activists and vegetarians view this potential development? And more to the point: What does it taste like? Will people really eat it? Listen as journalist Tom Levitt tries to answer host Alex Wise‘s litany of questions and gives us a sense of whether lab-grown meat is a realistic alternative, or just a (meat) pie-in-the-sky idea.