The Future of Meat

Animal meat has long been a rare and expensive part of the human diet, and although it is now widely considered essential and necessary, eating meat still carries many downsides. It is still more expensive than most other forms of nutrition; it requires killing animals, which we know to be more intelligent and conscious than we previously realized; and raising meat at our current scale of consumption comes at a terrible environmental cost. In short, meat is a finite resource that needs a synthetic solution, and we can expect that solution to follow the typical path of progress: replacement, improvement, advancement. Meat replacements are not a new concept, but modern alternatives are substantially different from the plant-based proteins we've known for hundreds of years. Now, synthetic meat can be made from animal cells so that it has the same components and attributes as real meat, but this "clean meat" or deathless-meat is grown in steel vats instead of inside animals. You might've already grown accustomed to Beyond meat and Impossible burgers, and although lab-grown steaks haven't made it quite yet, within 10 years we can expect a vast range of artificial animal products that are more delicious than their native counterparts. They will also cost less to produce and reduce environmental harms. After that, perhaps hybrid meats (beast blends?), and individually tailored foodceuticals. So, that's the future of meat: affordable, ethical, sustainable, and evolved.
This video on “The Future of Meat” was commissioned by China Mobile as part of an online course. It is one of 36 lecture videos. A version with Chinese subtitles is available at Citic Migu: citic.cmread.com/zxHtml/listen...
A transcript of the lecture in English is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1KAPQ...

[@samhklm]

Great overview of meat “protein” in the future. I wonder what the energy costs are for these new products. In WW2 the UK shutdown almost all livestock production in favor of plant crops. The simple fact is that plants are very efficient when you are trying to feed a lot of folks. More healthy protein I am sure would be a welcome supplement to the world. The question is can it be made affordable and high quality? And let's put plant-based meats in their proper place - they are simply another highly processed food, just like all the products that are in the middle of the grocery store.

[@omarlives]

Trump supporters will say solent green!?

[@IonStorland]

Even if the lab meat will prove to be cheaper to produce than livestock, I'm still quite sure the future is not in meat as it contains Trimethylamine N-oxide and other compounds that cause a long list of diseases. The future is gonna be a vegetarian diet that keeps people healthy for longer thus increasing lifespan.