In small labs in South Carolina, and North Dakota, biologists are trying to grow meat in petri dishes.

Researchers working in South Carolina, had been working on a NASA grant, because of the potential for use in long space voyages.  Remember the Star Trek food synthesizers?  They’ve just gotten a new grant from PETA (yes, no more harming animals in the name of our survival).

So far they can take embryonic muscle cells called myoblasts, which turn into muscle, from turkey, bath them in a bovine serum and then grow animal muscle tissue.

In North Dakota a researcher has grown myoblast cells from chicken, turkey, lamb, pig and cow.

The race to grow meat in laboratories is a world wide effort.  U.S. researchers are now competing against Europeans for more funding, which has become harder to find.