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Comment by sosodev | Hacker News Reader

I'm skeptical of this claim because there's clearly a growing population that hates the idea of putting anything they don't understand in their bodies. Genetically modified vegetables, food dyes, vaccines, etc.

I find it hard to believe you could convince a large portion of Americans to eat lab grown meat just to save a buck.

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I think that population is shrinking, not growing. They're surely vocal, though.

But if lab grown meat is cheaper, some part of the population would buy it. The farms would lose part of their business so economy of scale would help lab grown meat and hurt the farms. I think it would lead to a feedback loop where lab grown meat will get even cheaper and farm meat would get more expensive.

With lab grown meat you also have the option not only for a perfect piece of meat, but for different kinds of tastes, textures and compositions that haven't existed before. Just like people eat processed meat (think ham or nuggets or deep fried pieces), they would love to try the new tastes. I know I would.

I think a lot of people will be suspicious of lab grown meat after years of fake meats marketing of substances filled with some unholy combination of seed oils and chemicals (in before some nerd pipes up with a comment about how water is a chemical too kekeke) specifically designed to poison our bodies. Well maybe I exaggerate about specifically designed but fake meats are certainly not healthy for us.

Not to be glib, but the shelves of most American grocery stores do a pretty good job demonstrating that that segment of the population isn't dominant yet. There's a glut of processed food full of ingredients much harder to pronounce than an ingredient list that would read "Ingredients: Beef (cultured)".

And to be glib, I'm not thrilled about the idea of catering to the bar set by "things they don't understand" from that group in particular.

Sure you could, just don't tell them. The fast food burgers are already part soy and no one is yelling. If they replaced that with lab meat people would probably like it better.

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