Nutritionist Sounds Alarm on Lab-Grown Meat After FDA Approval: 'I'd Rather Eat My Shoe'

Imagine going into a restaurant and being asked if you want chicken, fish or a $100 animal-cell-cultivated-in-a-bioreactor burger.

If that sounds like the storyline of a cheesy, sci-fi B-movie, it’s not. This is happening right now.

According to the New York Post, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration have given approval to two companies, UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat, to sell their lab-grown meat products in the U.S.

Instead of being sourced from slaughtered animals, this meat is created through a process involving live stem cells taken from the muscle and skin of real animals. These stem cells are then cultivated in a bioreactor, which replicates the conditions inside an animal’s body and provides the necessary nutrients for the cells to grow into meat.

Now if that description hasn’t given you a hankering for a nice juicy stem cell steak, here’s some more information from Bon Appetit to whet your appetite.

Bon Appetit talked to Amy Chen, COO of Upside Foods, and other food technicians, who gave the magazine a description of the process of cellular meat.

Lab-grown meat production involves taking a sample of cells, such as stem, muscle and fat cells, either from a live animal through a small biopsy or from a fertilized chicken egg.

The selected cells, chosen for their ability to grow well and taste good, are then cultivated inside bioreactors, which resemble large “stainless-steel beer fermenters.” They are provided with a nutrient-rich solution containing ingredients like sugars, amino acids and vitamins.

Would you ever eat lab-grown meat?

During the cultivation process, the meat cells grow inside the bioreactors for at least a week or two until they reach their desired state. When they’ve finished growing, they are harvested, and the cells are “essentially killed,” ending their growth.

The harvested cells resemble a “pink slush” coming directly out of the bioreactor.

This cell mixture is then processed and formed into various meat products that end up at your table.

NO WAY José! I will NEVER eat this FAKE “meat” grown in a lab. Avoid this GARBAGE at all costs. Can’t be good for you. Disgusting!! https://t.co/xq6Tj0gAfk

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) June 24, 2023

Not only does slushy cell meat sound completely disgusting, it’s not cheap either.

According to Bon Appetit, a pound of cell-cultured meat would cost about $17 to make, compared to $2 for a pound of beef.

By the time lab-grown beef gets onto a plate at a restaurant, the magazine calculates, you could be paying $100 for a burger.

Ok, then, maybe it’s about climate change. Perhaps true believers in climate change are willing to eat this “meat” because it’s good for the planet.

Except, it’s not even good for the planet.

A recent study by UC Davis researchers found that “lab-grown or ‘cultivated’ meat’s environmental impact is likely to be ‘orders of magnitude’ higher than retail beef based on current and near-term production methods” because of the use of “highly refined or purified growth media, the ingredients needed to help animal cells multiply.”

So it’s gross, expensive, and bad for the environment, and yet the FDA is pushing it.

It’s not surprising, then, that not everyone is willing to start chewing on clone bones just yet.

In an interview, well-known nutritionist and food author Diana Rodgers told The New York Post, “I’d rather eat my shoe than lab-grown meat.”

Due to a lack of accessible nutritional information regarding lab-grown meat, Rodgers expressed uncertainty about its healthiness. She pointed out the absence of comprehensive life cycle assessments and public data on the production process of lab-grown meat.

“McDonald’s is still better because the meat is a better option for vitamins,” Rogers explained.

But at least one person says he’s a huge believer in synthetic meat — Bill Gates.

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Gates said, “I do think all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

According to Futurism, Gates has also invested in a synthetic meat company called Memphis Meats.