Since the dawn of Homo sapiens some quarter million years ago, animals have satiated our species' desire for meat. But with a growing global popula-tion and demand for meat, eggs, dairy, leather, and more, raising such massive numbers of farm animals is woefully inefficient and takes an enormous toll on the planet, public health, and certainly the animals themselves.
But what if we could have our meat and eat it, too? The next great scientific revolution is underway--discovering new ways to create enough food for the world's ever-growing, ever-hungry population.
Enter "cellular agriculture"--real, actual meat grown from animal cells--as well as other clean foods that ditch animal cells altogether and are simply built from the molecule up. Whereas our ancestors domesticated wild animals into livestock, today we're beginning to domesticate their cells, leaving the animals out of the equation. This is "a fascinating look at the future of food and the innovators who are working to interrupt and reinvent the food system" (Ann Veneman, former executive director of UNICEF and former US Secretary of Agriculture).