This is a thread for talking about cultured meat.

Within the next few weeks (months? Can't get a clear date online), cultured meat products are going to be available in grocery stores in the USA. Mission Barns is releasing meatballs and bacon with lab-grown pig fat from real pig cells, although the protein part is made from plants. It will be available at Sprouts. This is coming after a few years of bad news for cultivated meat. As was predicted by most experts, the wildly optimistic claims of a lot of industry figures turned out to be bullshit, and investment in the field has declined significantly since its peak in 2021. Additionally, the political right around the world has gotten very angry at cultivated meat, with Italy and Florida banning it prematurely, Pennsylvania's resident ogre John Fetterman calling it "slop" and calling for it to be banned in his state as well, and Marjorie Taylor Greene fear-mongering about Bill Gates fake meat grown in a "peach tree dish". The right wing has already been mad at soy for almost a decade now, so this was a natural development. In addition, the meat industry has straight up Empress Dowager Cixi levels of power over the legislative branch, and have a shit ton of weight to throw around if they feel truly threatened by cultured meat.

But it goes without saying that the development of cultured meat is not only a good thing, but would be one of the most good things humanity ever did, since factory farming is an atrocity of unimaginable proportions, and creating meat without giving tibial dyschondroplasia to hundreds of billions of birds would be a blessing from utilitarian god. As such, I am always keeping an eye open as to who is making cultured meat products and what progress is being made. Here is a brief summary of the industry right now:

Singapore is the cultured meat capital of the world. Singaporeans have been able to eat cultured chicken nuggets for almost three years now, and like half of all cultured meat companies are from there, probably because it was the first country in the world to legalize it back in 2020. Also, the Singaporean government has actually invested some money in the industry. Another flawless victory for keynesian mixed market economics. Anyway, there's an American company called wildtype foods that’s made a very good-looking cultured salmon. I saw a thread on 4chan’s /ck/ where a guy said he was randomly selected to try some of it and he said he couldn’t tell the difference between it and real salmon. I think the main thing holding them back from going to market is cost and lack of FDA approval. Their website’s “news” section hasn’t updated since last May, and contains nothing whatsoever about when their product might be ready to sell, if it even ever does before they go insolvent. Still, I’m crossing my fingers, because I want some David Pearce approved transhumanist sushi. There are three companies making cultivated tuna, one making “fish balls”, and sadly none making cultivated shrimp or other crustaceans. Donating to the Shrimp Welfare Project remains the best way to help invertebrates. There are no companies working on Turkey. Chicken is the most common cultured meat. In the UK you can now buy dog treats made with cultured chicken as of two months ago. There’s also a company making cultured foie gras, which seem like an obvious idea given how simple it is and how cruel the regular version is. Also, it’s not cultured meat, but for a few years now Perfect Day has been making lab-grown whey protein and they sell it at Juiceland for those of you who live in Austin. Pure, complete protein, made with Science. Not suitable for people with lactose intolerance. So awesome. I love the future.

This post was going to end with a series of predictions about the future of cultured meat but the future of cultured meat is part of the future of Earth and I have absolutely no idea what the fuck the world is going to look like in ten years because I have no idea to what extent AI is going to crazy and no idea what will happen if it does. Predicting the future is hard and only fools think they can do it.

Pic related because Fluttershy is a hedonistic transhumanist who tries to herbivorize the predator population of Equestria in Season 9 with vegan chocolate chip cookies. It really happened.