When the quality and cost of labgrown meat matches the real thing - we’ll see the tables turn. Especially if they’re able to produce various *cuts^ and styles.
Even beyond that, I wouldn’t underestimate the power of cultural change. From what I can tell, drugs, sex and clearly defined gender identities are all on the decline in the younger generations in the west. I’m not sure there’s any good or clear external force pushing this. I think it’s just change. When it comes to eating meat, it’s pretty easy to start thinking through why you don’t need to do it as much as the typical western diet does, which feels pretty ripe for some form of merely cultural change.
My theory is that drugs, excessive sex and to some extent petty crime are partly a result of boredom for teenagers.
Teenagers today have less reasons to be bored than a generation or two ago. Instead, they’re getting dopamine fixes from social media and gaming.
I’m not sure if that’s related to dieting.
If done right, the cultural climate to change from eating living things to lab grown meat will be as simple as ordering the same dishes at restaurants with substitute ingredients that nobody notices.
And cost. It’s hard to justify a diet change otherwise.
Americans went from eating sheep to cows in the 1800s because cows were cheaper per pound, more resilient to diseases and easier to maintain.
Veganism is popular because it’s still a cost effective diet. Mass farming is compatible with it.
I can easily see “Pepsi Challenge” style ad campaigns where people blindly guess which bite was the real meat - and which one they prefer.
Though, I also see a backlash. In a way that the proliferation of hybrid and electric vehicles created the anti-environmental practice of “coal rolling”, whereas asshats modify their truck engines to produce more pollutants to own the libs.
Traditionally grown meat will go the way of vinyl. Slowly fall out of popularity, then eventually become a status good, popular among aficionados, ignoring its actual inferiority in blind tastings. Calling it now, in 25 years, most US beef will be Kobe style, “we brushed our cows’ hair and sang it lullabies” and differentiated by marketing.
