Recently, University of Maryland scientists used live pig stem cells to grow pig muscle tissue (aka meat)in a petre dish. Very Frankenstein--ah ha ha! But, fascinating. If the technique for growing meat at a large scale is continually advanced, one day all the meat in the freezer counter might have come from the same lab, perhaps even from the same pig.

No more dirty pig, cattle, chicken farms, antibiotics? Im on board. (A little wishful thinking on my part here--it will probably be decades before mass production would be possible.) Other benefits can we glean from cultured meat? Jason Matheny says in a UniverseToday article--

For one thing, you could control the nutrients. For example, most meats are high in the fatty acid Omega 6, which can cause high cholesterol and other health problems. With in vitro meat, you could replace that with Omega 3, which is a healthy fat. Cultured meat could also reduce the pollution that results from raising livestock, and you wouldn't need the drugs that are used on animals raised for meat.

Interestingly, the franken-meat was developed not as a consumer product but as a way to grow meat in space--in spaceships where there's no room to coral cattle.

Of course if it tastes like astronaut food, we're gonna have a serious problem. Here's John Stewart on that..