The times they are a changing! Well maybe. Some very brave new world-esque research may change forever the way we eat. Researchers in Europe in collaboration with PETA are discovering methods of meat creation from a single animal cells as reported in the penultimate science weekly, Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101208/full/468752a/box/1.html).

The idea is to amplify the animal cell eg a pig cell to create sweet tasty meat wholly in a petri dish. The advantage would be reducing the cost associated with animal farming and would help solve the problem of a resource scarcity. Despite an initially oh hell no reaction to this, it cannot be denied that our current farming and agricultural practices do have a finite limit ie there is only a certain amount of arable land. So as much as lab fresh meat in my mind will never be as satisfying and tasty as paddock grown im glad research into alternative sources of food is under way.

Would you be an in vitro-tarian?