About ten years ago, I illustrated how technology and market cycles interacted with each other the first $250,000 lab-grown burger produced after months of work. A few years later, startups like Beyond Meat solved the problem of beef carbon-impact not with protein synthesis but with a smart cocktail of vegetal substitutes. And now lab-grown meat is coming back swinging as hard as ever, with the first authorized sale of lab-grown chicken nuggets in Singapore in 2021.
How long before Europe get there too? Less than three years, probably. Why? Because the canaries in this market mine are already there.
Now obviously, the real question is about the U.S. (accounting for 21% of worldwide beef consumption). While China (16.5%) can move at breakneck speed when the central party deems something worth pushing forward, the U.S. will face another major electric vehicle moment: how do you settle with the powerful incumbent meat producers and their lobbies?
