I don't mean beef from a cow raised in a test tube, I mean beef actually created in a lab!

My first thought (right after, "ewwwwww") was why the f-bomb would you want to even try this?  Much less, eat it!?!?

Turns out, the reasons for doing it kind of make sense. Cattle produce around 1/5th of all "greenhouse gasses" and you won't believe how much water is used to get a pound of real "cow beef". (2,000 gallons)  Beef "grown" in a lab requires only 1% of the land and only 4% of the water real beef would.  Don't worry though, "lab beef' is still about a decade away from commercial use.  (And I'm not eating it then either.)

Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LAB ART
Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for LAB ART
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Fake beef is only one idea being considered as the search continues for ways to feed a seemingly endlessly growing population.  How about bugs?  They have tons of nutrients and the farms they are raised on are ... well ... tiny.  You don't need near as much land, water, feed, etc to raise a herd of insects.  Nutrition bars made with ground up crickets instead of flour, plant based eggs (Yeah, eggs.  Grown.  Like a plant.), soy nutrition drinks and lots of other whacked out stuff is being experimented with.

Yuck.

Back to the lab beef now though; what do you guys think?

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