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I don't doubt that the factory is going to be a grim sight. I was more thinking about the centralization aspect, which would cause massive damage if the lab covering an entire state or country was contaminated.

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My point was that they're both centralized, but you have far more control over a lab setting (http://i.imgur.com/KW1LrLg.jpg) than something like this: http://i.imgur.com/SDUbUBQ.jpg

A factory is not going to produce a states worth of meat. Possibly a small city's worth, but Americans eat 1 billion pounds of meat per year an this stuff is going to take at least hours if not weeks to grow.

I think you are off by quite a bit on how much meat Americans eat.

214.8 lbs per capita per annum * 318 million people = ~68 billion lbs per annum

See: http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about-the-industry/sta...

There are 50 states. So, a states worth of meat should be around a billion pounds. Granted, some states have a relatively tiny population.

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