Our scientists are so preoccupied asking if they can that they haven't stopped to ask if they should.
Americans are one step closer to being able to buy chicken grown from animal cells, also known as lab-grown meat.
Good Meat, the developer of such a chicken product, announced Tuesday that it has received a so-called "no questions" letter from the Food and Drug Administration. That letter states that the administration is satisfied that the product is safe to sell in the United States. The FDA issued a similar letter to another company that makes meat from cultured chicken cells, Upside Foods, in November.
I wasn't exactly waiting on the FDA's stamp of approval regarding lab meat.
I'm not gonna eat it. Not even gonna try it. It's weird and I'm unsettled by it.
If you feel differently, great. Have at it.
Enjoy your abomination.
It's worth pointing out that the FDA's approval does not mean the lab meat companies can just go ahead and start selling the lab meat. There are a few more boxes they have to check:
To get the green light to sell to consumers, both companies need the go-ahead from the US Department of Agriculture.
That's kinda weird considering that lab meat doesn't really have anything to do with "agriculture" as it's been known for thousands of years. But who am I to question the wisdom of our vast, unelected bureaucracy?
Here's CNET predicting lab chicken would be available by 2023:
After all, everyone knows the food in America is super healthy and definitely not poisoning us, so I'm sure the FDA knows what it's doing this time around. Make sure to mull it over while you're eating your seventh helping of GMO soy for the day!
Apparently this "meat without slaughter" has already been for sale in Singapore for the last several years, so folks have been enjoying it there (I assume) for some time.
