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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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Lab grown animal cells will always be more expensive than animal-grown animal cells. Animals have immune systems; lab cells have to be kept in a sterile environment, a significant cost. Animals have digestive systems and can power cell growth and all other functions from common plant materials; lab cells have to be fed pre-digested and carefully proportioned material, a significant cost. Animals have circulatory systems that efficiently perfuse oxygen and nutrients, and remove waste; lab cell containers have to be centrifuged in small containers because the forces required in large containers damage the cells. And so on.
The real potential for equal-tasting, cheaper, better-for-environment cuts is in plant-based imitations like what Impossible brand and its competitors are doing.
These laws banning lab grown cells are banning designer lab-grown cuts as a luxury good. Once that market matures, I am sure the wealthy people who jump on the conspicuous consumption bandwagon will not have any problem getting the law repealed or exceptions carved out for them.
Your entire comment assumes the state of the art for lab growing proteins is static and will not enjoy economies of scale.
I used to argue with a guy who thought that nuclear was the only power for the future, and things like solar and wind were too small and inefficient to bother with. I always said that he was arguing about a future where none of these solutions had any development or growth
Sure, back then solar and wind were tiny, but that doesn't mean that you chuck it all out. You stick with it, do the research, and eventually it becomes a viable option, which is exactly what happened.
The same will happen with meat. Now it's cost-prohibitive, but one by one, they'll conquer the bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and eventually it will become a viable option.
That guy was right. And if we completely switched over and ignored the fear campaigns promoted by coal/oil/gas we’d have one of the safest and greenest electrical grids.
Not really.
Yes the fear campaigns have been detrimental and it's unfortunate that Nuclear has often been set aside over the decades because of the risk of mismanagement.
However, it's only part of a reliable electrical grid, it's not "the solution".
In Australia for example, our population density is too low. Too much power would be lost in transmission. Perhaps in a few major cities it might be appropriate but it's too costly to support a nuclear industry for only a few installations.
Nuclear might be a great solution in many instances but it's probably not in Australia.
i would argue nuclear isn't the only power for the future, but it's a great backbone for a flexible green grid also with solar, wind and hydro.
To be fair: People used to argue that Nuclear would get much cheaper and so cheap and safe that you could even power your car with it. They thought that everyone would have their own nuclear reactor at home giving them close to infinite cheap and clean energy.
That didn't exactly turn out that way.
That's the issue with using future developments as an argument. We don't really know where the future leads the technology and which limitations will be overcome with development and which ones won't.
There are thousands of cool things that were posed to become the future revolution. Some of them did, many more of them didn't.
20 years ago, hydrogen fuel cell cars were to become the future. Now the technology is completely dead.
From a current tech standpoint economy of scale is not nearly enough to get the price of lab meat to the price of animal meat. The ingredients are just much more complex and thus expensive.
From a future tech standpoint, who knows? Could be that some revolutionary breakthrough happens. Or could be that it doesn't. And if it doesn't, it won't get cheaper.
I am sure it will enjoy economies of scale. Lab grown meat is currently something like 1000x the cost of animal-grown meat: I am confident they can get that down to 10x, maybe single digits. I am equally confident the inherent inefficiency of growing muscle cells without the integrated functions of the rest of the animal mean the lab cost will never be lower.
You've really just enumerated some of the advantages traditional production has over synthetic meats.
Animals need arable land - something which will be in very short supply given climate change.
Animals are a significant source of greenhouse gas production.
Raising animals is in many cases unethical.
Synthetic meat production is not as dependent on regular climate cycles.
Animal husbandry is a mature technology with little opportunity for advancement.
I wish my stomach could handle impossible meats but they just immediately go through me. For me going towards a more plant based diet will require avoiding highly processed meat replacements.
That's interesting, I hadn't realized they affected some people that way. I have noticed their "beef" and "pork" products include a lot of fat, maybe the greasy slipperiness contributes to the effect? I'd like to think use in dishes where the other ingredients are low-fat would balance things out, but if not that's sad for that brand.
In my case it’s the pea protein isolates. That burger spent so little time in my belly that I doubt I digested much of it.
edit: pea proteins are a known problem for my family
that explains a lot. there's that restaurant down in santa nella that you either love or it gives you the runs and i never thought it was a heritable pea protein thing.
It's specifically the ultra processed isolated proteins from peas. I can eat cooked peas or raw in pod peas without a problem but vegan pea based "ice cream" is in my belly for minutes at best. For ice cream replacements it has to be oat or coconut based.
thank you for sharing more info. i've not explored it too much myself.