“If we can make the meat without the animal, why wouldn’t we do that?” A future for lab-grown meat

The New Republic looks towards a cruelty free (and maybe animal free) food supply of meat (from an interview with Tyson Foods’ Tom Hayes, who recently resigned as CEO).

The Meat Mogul’s Case For Lab-Grown Beef
 By AMANDA LITTLE

"it was Hayes who made the timeliest and most convincing case for meat alternatives—and cellular meats in particular. 

"He emphasized that the entire “cell-to-fork” process for growing and harvesting lab meats is two to six weeks—a blink of an eye compared with the two and a half years it typically takes to grow cattle from conception to maturity. That represents huge cost and energy savings. Hayes also pointed out that cultured meats eliminate concerns about E. coli and other pathogens that can contaminate animal meat during processing. The single biggest risk in his business, he said, is contamination. A few months after Cargill invested in cell-based meat producer Memphis Meats, it recalled 130,000 pounds of ground beef that had been contaminated with E. coli—a problem that wouldn’t happen with lab-grown meat."