There is an increasing recognition from meat providers and consumers that the current situation cannot last. Between the astronomical carbon dioxide cost of meat and the increasing concerns over the way that livestock is raised there is more money each year put into alternative meats. On top of that, livestock is taking more of the space that used to be given over to wildlife and rainforests.
Alternative meats fall into to two different categories. Category 1 makes an effort to mimic the taste and texture of meat using vegetables and other foods: and can be highly persuasive. Category 2 takes a few cells from a living animal and then in a lab feed them with the right nutrients to allow them to grow. While both I likely to have a place in the future of human meat eating, I think that the second is likely to dominate in the near future. Currently the problem is that these grown meats cost too much with the prices falling so fast and it’s likely to undercut farm meat within the next few years.
There has been a number of cultured meats created in the last few years. Bacon is one of the meats that are most common (it’s not unusual but bacon is the only meat in a dish), and so right for this move,and if the price could get low enough is likely to do a lot of business for this company.
At the moment the company based in San Francisco is looking for 50 to 100 tasters. Will be given food that includes the bacon free of charge, only requiring a disclaimer signed and some honest feedback. However given their already looking at humans eating this product they are quite a long way along the line towards selling it to consumers.
Currently the reason that cultured meat is not regularly on sale (generally only purchasable in specific restaurants often expensive), is because of the cost of the growth medium (the feed and the environment that the bacon grows in)-advantage of baking beans that the fat is very cheap to grow making bacon cheaper than other less fatty meats.
Currently there making bacon to supply a handful of restaurants, no they don’t expect to start commercial operations until after the end of this year.
There are thought to be around 36 companies working on cultured meats around the world and progress is very rapid. It seems likely that within the next decade people could decide to stop eating meat that required animals to be killed without going vegetarian. Even for those who are not squeamish about animals being killed, for anyone concerned about the environment this is great news. Well there will be significant downsides from the loss of meat farming,one big advantage will be the eradication of the need for large areas of land to graze animals (often forested originally) and the crops that they are fed when not able to be out grazing naturally.
