Medical University of South Carolina scientist Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D. has been working for a decade to grow meat. He has taken myoblasts — embryonic cells that develop into muscle tissue — from turkey and bathed them in a nutrient bath of bovine serum on a scaffold made of chitosan (a common polymer found in nature) to grow animal skeletal muscle tissue.

Cultured meat could eventually become cheaper than what Nicholas Genovese, a visiting scholar in cancer cell biology, called the “heavily subsidized production” of farm meat, and if the public accepts cultured meat, the future holds benefits. “Thirty percent of the earth’s land surface area is associated with producing animal protein on farms,” Genovese said.

“Animals require between 3 and 8 pounds of nutrient to make 1 pound of meat. It’s fairly inefficient. Animals consume food and produce waste. “Further out, if we have interplanetary exploration, people will need to produce food in space and you can’t take a cow with you.”