This has me conflicted. On the one hand, meat is good, and making environmentalists/hippies shut up is always cool. But, no animal has to die to make this meat, so it can't possibly taste as good.

One thing that PETA types forget is that there are many more of animals that we eat than if we did NOT eat them.

In other words, there will be less killing of meat animals but there will be less birthing of them too. If we close beef packing plants, how many wild cattle do you expect there to be? Won't other carnivores eat them instead?

In further words, the pig and cattle biomass will decrease if we stop eating them.

Oh well, pass the synthetic steak sauce.

Im with Jon. Not just for flavor reasons though. Meat is a thing to be gotten by killing. Might as well eat tofu otherwise, and what self respecting person wants to eat that?

What is killing? Don't we kill plants in order to eat them? If live meat-cell cultures are grown in laboratories, once we cook and eat them isn't that killing? I don't see any reason why meat (or any other form of edible protein) has to come from a sentient being.

If we bred brainless cows and slaughtered them, would that be wrong too? I can't see why.

First off, you are wrong. The people who wanted prohibition did support the passage of prohibition, even if it then put them out of the job.

The same with those who fought for civil rights, voting rights for women, or many other progressive causes.

Although the biggest group is probably the anti-abortion lobby. They would be out of work if they succeeded, right? You don't mention them.

I'm not saying the animal rights people don't want to stop animal abuse or that the AIDS activists don't want to stop AIDS; I said "no well-funded activist wants to have his work disappear" -- by way of pointing out that it isn't in their interest to be left with nothing to do. If they succeed, they'll find new targets for their energies.

Prohibitionism was not limited to alcohol, and the anti-drug hysteria (especially the anti-marijuana movement) directly followed the repeal of prohibition. Not only that, legal regulation of liquor provided jobs for those previously engaged in prohibition law enforcement. (The Prohibitionist Party lost much momentum, of course, but continued to exist for many years.)

Nor did the civil rights movement end with successful desegregation or the passage of the Civil Rights Act. It quickly morphed into the affirmative action movement.

As to the anti-abortion lobby, I don't think they'd go home if Roe v. Wade was overturned. They'd keep on fighting in the individual states, one at a time. And even if they succeeded there, I think they't turn their focus to RU-487 and even contraceptives.

I think this is great. Cheaper food, and probably MUCH better, is well on the way!

Where there is much cattle today, there will be many bison tomorrow. Totally cool.

TJ, I don't see how anyone could object, except the people who have money or organizational commitments.

I hate changing the subject like this, but WTH -- this post is receding.... Anyway, whenever I see the word "bison" I think of W.C. Fields and the "Bisonette" family ("It's a Gift," 1934.)

They don't make Americans like Fields anymore. If they did he'd be locked up.

Brief bio:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001211/bio

William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. He was often beaten and spent nights in jail. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. It was then, at an amusement park in Norristown PA, that he was first hired as an entertainer. There he developed the technique of pretending to lose the things he was juggling. In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as "The Distinguished Comedian" and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace.

"What is killing?"

To answer that we need to answer "What is life?", as killing is ostensibly the ending of it.

Since Im not feeling particularly philosophical, or even thoughtful for that matter, Ill just say that killing should involve lots of blood and leave it at that.

Actually, they should get the global warming crowd on board.

One of the biggest sources of methane today is cattle ranches.

Seriously, though, from what I heard the biggest problem with lab-grown muscle was to get it... well... exercised properly. a randomly stimulate mass of tissue does not have the same texture as a specifically, directionally stimulated mass of tissue. This is probably why they're only promising ground meat at this point. Once it's ground, the texture difference is unnoticeable.