Yet according to this article, reality is very far away, if not unachievable.
First, you need a bioreactor facility – even one that is equivalent to 1/3 of all the volume of the entire biopharmaceutical industry today would only yield 22m pounds of lab-grown protein or 0.02% of US meat production.
To get to 10% of global meat consumption in 2030 you need 4,000 of these at a cost of $1.8 trillion.
The bigger problem is these are live animal cells and hence are very vulnerable to any contamination. Bacteria would crush these cells as they grow much faster, while viruses would infect as the culture has no immune system. These cascade shutting down entire production facilities.
The solution – clean rooms – are very expensive.
Full paper on the topic and h/t NZS Capital (which lists many other problems from the article).
