Is Cultivated Meat For Real? (Asterisk Magazine)

An article I wrote called Is Cultivated Meat For Real? was recently published in Asterisk Magazine. It takes stock of where we stand 10 years in to cultivated meat, and tries to find a middle ground between the exuberant optimism and cynical pessimism that are both present in the zeitgeist. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

I agree with the pessimistic commentators that “The Dream” of cultivated meat — full bio-replicas, cost competitive, at scale — is not feasible in the short term. However, comparison to other technologies like solar energy suggests that cultivated meat may take decades and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment — but is ultimately possible. If we accept longer time scales, many of the seemingly intractable problems become tractable. In the meantime, companies can justify large venture capital investments by pursuing cheaper products that combine cultivated and plant-based components. Cultivated meat is by no means inevitable. But it’s still a bet worth making.