Video: Everything You Need To Know about Lab-grown Meat
Manufacturers of lab-grown meat want you to think it's the same as normal meat, but it isn't.
Lab-grown meat and alternative proteins appeal to corporations because
they allow them to consolidate control of the food supply
Lab-grown meat is back in the headlines this week, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing into law a bill that makes it illegal to sell or produce lab-grown meat in his state. Three other states are mooting similar laws. So what’s the big deal with this “food of the future”? Here’s everything you need to know.
Of all the so-called “alternative proteins” or “foods of the future”, it’s lab-grown meat that seems to invite the most visceral reaction of disgust. Sure, “plant-based meat” doesn’t sound particularly appetising, but it’s made from things that are ubiquitous in today’s food chain—plant protein like soy and plant oils like canola, mainly—with some extra ingredients, including, in the case of Impossible’s flagship “ground meat”, a genetically modified soy product called “heme” which makes the burger “bleed” when it’s bitten into. Many people’s first reaction to “plant-based meat” is still just to say, “Plant-based meat!? How can you make meat from a plant?” (The answer, of course, is that you need an animal to do that. Anyway.)