In Vitro Meat: Will 'Frankenfood' Save The Planet Or Just Gross Out Consumers?

Would you eat a hamburger grown in a petri dish? How would you feel if your breakfast sausage came from the lab? Well, scientists are getting close to making this a reality. It's called in vitro meat, and Dutch biologist Mark Post is pretty confident that he can put a lab-grown hamburger on your plate by the end of the year.

The stakes are high. Right now, 40 billion animals are killed per year in the US alone. One million chickens are killed per hour. Over one-fourth of the total land surface of the earth is used for livestock grazing (or non-grazing, like in factory farms). Global meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gasses. That's more than every car, bus, train, and airplane produces combined. And its not like conventional meat production is even efficient. To make 15 grams of edible meat, we have to feed that animal 100 grams of vegetable protein. Is that sustainable with a growing world population? You do the math...