Would You Eat Lab Meat?

Remember that New Yorker piece about test-tube burgers? Well, it looks like in vitro meat could be coming to a supermarket near you.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, scientists are competing to get lab meat to supermarkets and restaurants. Some are predicting a wait of only six months to a year.

This is great news for environmentalists, since beef production also produces greenhouse gases, and even better news for ethical vegans and vegetarians (they can now eat meat, kind of... right?). It's even good news for normal folks, since lab meat apparently has lower cholesterol.

Here's the gritty production part: The "meat" is created by placing cells in a nutrient mixture to grow, forming muscle tissue that can be molded into food. Sounds gross, but it's meat without the factory-farming, the greenhouse gasses, the hormones, etc. We'll just have to see if people will actually eat it.

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.