When Dutch scientist Mark Post became the first person in the world to make a cell-cultured beef burger — the pound of lab-made beef would have cost around $1.2m.
Over the years that number has dropped exponentially, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be cheap when it’s expected to hit markets in 2020.
According to Bruce Friedrich, founder of the Good Food Institute, people will have to stomach a $50 price tag on cell-cultured meat, chicken, or fish — whatever meat ends up being the first to touch down.
It’s for a good cause, people!
Aside from the fact that living, burping livestock is responsible for 15% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, the ever-rising human population (and our respective appetites) will demand an estimated 70% to 100% more meat by 2050.
Put those two things together and alt-beef becomes a hot commodity. But, in San Francisco a plant-based Impossible burger costs around $19, so why would anyone buy clean meat for $50?
People must really hate veggies
In an interview with the BBC, Friedrich boasted that the Good Food Institute’s meat patty is “not yet another veggie burger” — hmm, weird flex.
Clean-meat still isn’t technically vegetarian (it’s cultured from animal cells), which could be a prime selling point to carnivore traditionalists, who often think of veggies as Satan’s meal of choice.