Is It Time To Embrace Lab-Grown Meat?

Touted as healthy, humane and sustainable, protein grown in a petri dish is getting closer to the table.

- Kate Geagan

When we think of following a more sustainable lifestyle, we typically imagine shopping carts brimming with minimally processed, whole foods, chock full of fruits and veggies. To be sure, a steady stream of science urges us that swapping plant proteins for animal ones as well as choosing certified organic, high-welfare meat and dairy can bolster our health and reduce our impact on the planet.

But there’s a revolution brewing that offers a radical new path for eaters hungry for alternative solutions to one of our biggest food challenges. It’s so new that even its name isn’t firmly established — it has been called at various turns clean meat, cell-based meat, lab-grown meat and more. In fact, it’s so new that governments around the world are scrambling to regulate it. And it’s coming to a table near you faster than you think.

What is lab-grown meat anyway?