PATTERN RECOGNITION
TOBY SHAPSHAK: Growing better meat
At the moment it’s expensive, but meat produced in a brewery is healthier, contains fewer antibiotics, is friendlier to the environment and is infinitely more humane
Uma Valeti makes a mean meatball. It’s perfectly round, sizzles when you fry it in a pan and tastes good. But unlike most meatballs, it was grown in a sterile brewery; it does not come from a cow. Memphis Meats, the company that Valeti co-founded, has been called “the hottest tech in Silicon Valley” by Fortune magazine and is aiming to revolutionise food production. Valeti is a cardiologist who was working on regenerating heart muscles when he realised he could do the same for meat, which takes three weeks to be grown in a brewery similar to what’s used to produce beer. When the meatball first appeared a year ago, it cost US$18,000 for about 450g. Now it costs half that and economies of scale will ultimately come into play. “We want to make meat that is better and safer,” Valeti said during a fascinating panel discussion on plant-based protein at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in Texas, which finished last week. “We really want to transform an industry that is badly in nee...
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