Test tube meat on the menu?
Jeffrey L Fox

By 2022, consumers could be tucking into 'VatBeef' grown in a lab, at least according to a report from the Food Ethics Council released earlier this year. The UK independent think tank and advisory body has identified in vitro cultured meat as a possible means of easing food supply worries in the future. A recent report from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford also touts in vitro meat as an important approach for reducing the carbon footprint of livestock and easing the pressure on agricultural land and water use.

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.

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