In reply to Flinticus:
It's the lifecycle costs associated with this that make things so expensive. Keeping systems uncontaminated is expensive. Growth media, reaction vessels, energy costs, processing costs.
The key phrase is "Research by the thinktank RethinkX suggests that proteins from precision fermentation will be around 10 times cheaper than animal protein by 2035. That's 15 years away so they have little confidence in these figures really.
We certainly could do something about this if, collectively, we put our minds to it. Using polyhydroxyalkanoates as a source of bioproduced, biodegradeable plastics was trialled extensively with some rather exquisite genetic engineering of the bacteria making the product. However, after all the effort, it still worked out twice as expensive as using fossil hydrocarbon sources and was deemed uneconomic. It could easily be revived with appropriate government intervention (subsidy and regulation/taxation)
What I'm unconvinced about is the urge to grow lab meat/meat proteins. At the moment the growth media still need animal products (fetal calf serum). This could be done in plants but with a lot of genetic modification needed. At the end of it all, we'll end up with the world's most highly processed, genetically modified facsimile of a meat-like product. Much simpler just to grow and eat a vegetable protein source.
