What the hell are they thinking? Why don't they just get behind a better solution: help everyone reduce their intake of first, red meat, and then poultry. All of the resources going into this boondoggle could be better invested in more practical means of reducing meat consumption. But then again, this "eonomic downturn" will probably help in a significant way towards that goal. Not the most desirable method, but certainly an unintended consequence.

The mellotron is your friend.

Odds of getting the large majority of Americans to give up cheeseburgers?

Danged low.

Odds of getting the large majority of Americans eating "lab meat" cheeseburgers if the lab stuff tastes the same and costs less?

Pretty high.

Should that read "large majority of Americans" or "majority of large Americans"?  :o)

Both snark and puns are degraded by the author labeling them when they are presented.

Too good Bob.  This could take off.  People eat spam.  There is no telling what crap some people will swallow.  This is true figuratively and literally.

This guy's gonna read his labels close though.  I don't want anything to do with it.

Vegeburgers.

Soy sausages.

Even vegetarians seem to want a meat fix from time to time.

If they get this stuff right - tasty, affordable, environmentally benign, healthy- then I've got no problem with it.  Wouldn't take much to get the quality up higher than sausage and hot dogs....

and at let's at least check it out. TofuTurkey's right on.....these veggie meat things are weird! I go to the Natural Products expos every year and some of the stuff being fobbed off as "healthy, natural & vegetarian" reeeeeally stretches those definitions.

Will shmeat be as authentic as, say, that Heritage black spotted dapple-nose peeky lamb that organo-foodies live for? Definitely not. But if I can get a decently toothsome & relatively harmless meatfix without slaughtering more hapless doe-eyed innocent critters, I'm all for it. (I can get the nutrients from all the local, organic heirloom veggies I eat with my shmeat.)

Potential for weirdness of the corporate geneto-manipulative variety? Absolutely. And we'll prob'ly get a lotta false health claims too.  But nothing these days is inherently safe from that. Let's watch & see what happens to the Slo Foods when WalMart buys in (and if everyone keeps writing about it, they will!).

Shmeat is a strange compromise, one that facilitates a unique form of guilt assuagement (think of it as carbon offsets for the soul). But since I do enjoy meat now and again I, for one, am  willing to try it.

Yes, it's Star Trek food, but I suppose you'd like to carry on this long distance, multi-person dialog via smoke signals??

--EeeGee

The cause is terrific: to reduce the number of animals upon whom we inflict suffering, for the sole purpose of eating their flesh.

But plainly, one big task will be coaxing babyish diners to try something new, which they may very well like in preference to something they used to eat.

And then there will inevitably be all those ignorant, ethics-phobic infants, who say such things as "I will just stick with me old-fashioned hamburgers thank you very much," and who will affirm one another's backward prejudices.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Methinks this kind of meat substitute might very well be suitable for cheeseburgers!

However, the inventor of artificial meat, a Norwegian company , thinks it will take some years to produce the meat .

What's most important matter for animal " lovers" is to reduce the suffering of factory farming etc.

Another way to help encourage people to shun that next hotdog, steak or chicken kebab is to make tours and videos of factory farms, slaughterhouses and meat processors a mandatory part of our education system. I'm sure that the meat industry and governments would just jump at that!