Lab-grown meat has sometimes lacked the texture and flavor of natural meat. But its quality has improved, so much so that a vegan reporter found that she enjoyed lab-grown chicken and fish:
I’ve been a committed vegan for more than three years, but this week, I ate meat. Why? The meat dishes I ate this Wednesday weren’t ordinary salmon and chicken. They didn’t come from a slaughterhouse or fishery—in fact, they didn’t come from a living animal that had to be killed at all. The meat I tried was cultivated, or lab-grown meat….The dishes I had came from cultivated meat companies Wildtype and GOOD Meat, and were served for free by alternate protein industry group Food Solutions Action.
I tried two salmon dishes and one chicken dish, all served up inside José Andrés’ downtown D.C. restaurant Oyamel. The first salmon dish involved a dollop of guacamole wrapped in a thin slice of Wildtype salmon gravlax. Salmon, especially cured salmon like gravlax, is the kind of meat I miss the most since going vegetarian four years ago, so I was particularly excited to try this one. While it wasn’t quite like how I remembered lox tasting, the Wildtype salmon was savory, undeniably meaty and pleasantly fishy. In my experience, texture is the biggest challenge facing cultivated meat products and the wafer-thin preparation in this case helped the Wildtype salmon shine.
The second salmon dish was a simple ceviche-like preparation of cubed salmon, avocado, pecans, and a tangy dressing. Here, the sponginess of the Wildtype salmon was more apparent, and the textural wonkiness certainly wouldn’t fool any committed carnivores.
GOOD Meat’s chicken was served as a simple taco with beans and salsa. I’ve had this kind of cultivated chicken before, and I don’t know if it was simply a different preparation or an update to GOOD Meat’s production process, but I thought this time around, GOOD Meat’s chicken was close to perfect. The chicken wasn’t too bouncy and had a pleasant “shreddy” texture resembling the structure of chicken thighs. It was fairly convincing, enough that I did a mouth-based double take when I took my first bite.
Britain has approved lab-grown meat, but it has been banned in Italy and two states to protect farmers from competition.
A company has created woolly-mammoth meatballs, resurrecting the flesh of long-extinct giants.
If people are concerned about the environmental impact of consuming meat, they can also shift to consuming types of meat that don’t have as much effect on the environment. For example, guinea pigs are a much more efficient source of protein, per acre, than cattle, generating four times as much meat per acre. Guinea pigs also generate less greenhouse gas emissions per pound of meat. So they are an earth-friendly food.
In Peru, guinea pigs are often eaten with potatoes and salsa, or french fries. Guinea pig has been served whole on special occasions since Inca times. Eating insects (such as mealworms and locusts) rather than beef or pork also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and pollution: “Compared to cattle, weight for weight, insects emitted 80 times less methane — a gas with 25 times more impact on global temperature levels than carbon dioxide. And crickets produced 8-12 times less ammonia than pigs.”
