Lab-Grown Meat May Save a Lot More than Farm Animals’ Lives

Imagine a backyard barbecue where the parents grill burgers and chicken kebabs they've grown from single cells using a home meat-making machine.  Meat is essentially muscle tissue, so if it grows naturally from a just few cells into a thick chunk, why can't the same process happen in the lab? Over the past few years, scientists have made progress in figuring out how to use self-renewing cells to grow this tissue outside the body, and some hope to scale it up for mass production soon. You can call it lab-grown, clean, or cultured meat — we have yet to settle on a term — but there's a good chance these products will replace conventional meat because of their potential for reducing environmental cost, increasing health benefits for humans, and protecting the welfare of the animals.