Cultured Meats - An in depth article on its current status and future

[Donw]

This is a free link to an in depth article about the current status of cultured meats and its future from the New York Times. Long story short, it isn’t too bright. Caution, it is long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/opinion/eat-just-upside-foods-cultivated-meat.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UU0.h-E1.zMVQ-1LH0Bha&smid=url-share

[MsTwiggy]

Two things i never want to eat 1) fake meat and 2) insects. Everything else is fair play 🔥🔥🐿️

[texastweeter]

Your missing out on the insects. Chapulines tacos are mighty fine dinin'

[MsTwiggy]

The industry . . . built facilities and pushed for government approval before they had overcome the most fundamental technological challenges. And now investors are after them for fraud. This isn’t a story about hope for a better product or a better world. It’s an old story, another trope about greed. 🔥🔥🐿️

[yakima]

Article too long for my retired short attention span.
Awhile back I bought a bit of Tyson stock. Figured that if plant or cellular meat takes off, they are likely to buy a start-up.
My personal perspective is that the USA has wonderful range land in central and west; think Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana. The old buffalo country. Our family operation straddles the line between grass and irrigated cropland. Cows and yearlings on summer grass, on winter cornstalks. Calve on grass. Feedlot, grain finished, after 15-18 months on grass/stalks. Minimal transportation costs. Critters on grass do not require fertilizer, irrigation or annual tillage planting harvest operations.
I suspect that intensive CAFO operations will reduce in the future, due to environmental and market pressures, but that strategically located operations will continue to thrive.

[Donw]

You can’t beat the grazing charge for an animal unit (cow/calf), on BLM or Forest Service range even today. Last I heard it was $1.35 a month.

[jerrybell]

@Donw thanks for sharing the link.

[Histrix]

Given the environmental changes that Big Ag will continue to face folks that today say they'll never eat "fake meat" or bugs may be forced to change their minds unless their wallets are very thick or their credit cards have lots of headroom.

As yakima says - CAFO's will be severely impacted as the climate changes and the already overused aquifers continue to shrink but the sort of grazing operations he describes only represent a small fraction of the beef produced for market. Twenty years from now how many folks will still be able to afford to consume as much beef as they might desire?

Tissue engineering is a big thing in the medical world these days and lots of exciting developments there so
I have no doubt that it won't be too many more years before they figure out the chemistry of creating factory meat.

[Troutman]

Hard pass, don’t need Solent Green.

Genisis 1:26-31