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Test tube meat on the menu?

Nature Biotechnology volume 27, page 873 (2009)Cite this article

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Cultured meat has been garnering increasing attention ever since the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a Washington, DC–based activist organization, offered a $1-million prize “to the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.” And although research on creating a palatable in vitro cultured myocyte alternative to meat remains in its infancy, investors are beginning to show interest, including the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers of Menlo Park, California.

But the mere mention of lab-grown meat—an assortment of projects to produce beef, pork or chicken proteins in industrial-scale cell cultures—evokes enthusiasm at one end of the spectrum and caustic criticism at the other. “I wonder if you can get people to eat that stuff,” says Michael Hansen of Consumers Union in Yonkers, New York. “There are safety questions, technical problems and a very huge 'yuck' factor to deal with,” he says.

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  1. Jeffrey L Fox
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Fox, J. Test tube meat on the menu?. Nat Biotechnol 27, 873 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1009-873

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