Recently tried an Impossible burger and nuggets and thought that if nobody told me it wasn’t meat, I’d have thought the patty was made out of a weird kind of meat, rather than make a connection with the taste and texture of plants. Honestly, I might not complain if that was the only kind of “meat” I could have for the rest of my life.
Well, maybe I’d miss bacon.
I’ve yet to find the opportunity to try lab-grown meat, but I for sure would like to try it out and don’t see much wrong with it as long as it’s sustainable, reasonably priced, and doesn’t have anything you wouldn’t expect in a normal piece of meat.
Also, with imitation and lab-grown options, I’d no longer have to deal with the disgust factor of handling raw meat (esp. the juices) or biting into gristle. I’ll happily devour a hot dog, but something about an unexpected bit of cartilage gives me a lingering sense of revulsion.
I think it’s okay, the Impossible stuff gets pretty close to what they’re imitating.
But I also think I’m not really their target audience… like I’m okay with a veggie burger tasting like veggie. I’m not really looking for something that tastes like beef or whatever. These products like the Impossible burger aren’t targeting vegetarian/vegan shoppers, maybe their niche are the meat eaters curious about trying to cut down on meat consumption which is okay.
There’s definitely an opportunity to lower or even eliminate all the factory farming and animal abuse if some sort of meat replacement manages to catch on in a big way. We’re not quite there yet but you never know how things will work out in the future.