Not a vegetarian here, but I'm really excited about companies and products in this space. There's a lot of very poor quality meat out there that can easily be substituted by these products for cost, nutrition and environmental reasons. The way I describe the Impossible Burger to friends that haven't tried it is "If I invited you to a BBQ with decent store-brand frozen patties and randomly inserted Impossible patties, you probably wouldn't notice".
I have a general prediction about these products though: I think they'll follow the broad development of art and games. Initially they will work very very hard to produce something that is as close to meat as possible, just like gaming worked very hard at photo-realism for many many years. But once they reach close enough, people will actually get bored and new and more interesting meat-like products, which traditional meat could never produce, much the same way gaming gave up photo-realism and many hit games started taking on more artistic qualities.
>If I invited you to a BBQ with decent store-brand frozen patties and randomly inserted Impossible patties, you probably wouldn't notice
They're usually compared to fast-food burgers. Supermarket frozen patties might as well be legacy veggie burgers, considering they're full of soy protein and have a completely un-meatlike texture.
I actually prefer the Griller Prime[1] by Morningstar to every veggie burger, even including the Impossible Burger.
The key, which my mom used to yell at me for, is to put the burgers in an actual toaster(not a toaster oven) on high until they are crispy and sizzling.
It is divine!! (Saying this as a vegetarian whose tried hundreds of burgers.)
Prime grillers have egg whites in them though. But normal Morningstar grillers do not. But normal grillers are no where near on the taste charts..
I expect that at some point, it will be possible to grow meat from any given set of human DNA. At this point, I see two things:
1) Lines of celebrity meat. One might be able to look forwards to, for example, an Angelina Jolie steak.
2) Middle class (well, by then the middle classes won't exist - let's just say "rich people") dinner parties in which the hostess serves her guests herself. On a plate.
Is it cannibalism if it was never part of a whole human, but was instead grown in a vat?
I have a general prediction about these products though: I think they'll follow the broad development of art and games. Initially they will work very very hard to produce something that is as close to meat as possible, just like gaming worked very hard at photo-realism for many many years. But once they reach close enough, people will actually get bored and new and more interesting meat-like products, which traditional meat could never produce, much the same way gaming gave up photo-realism and many hit games started taking on more artistic qualities.