In addition to the answer by avacyn, which I endorse, I’d like to add that there would probably be several generations of products. At first, it would likely be a mix of plants and a bunch of muscle/fat/stem cells. Later generations might include more sophisticated tissues and cell differentiation process which would be necessary for more complex meat such as steaks. As avacyn said, the industry is mostly focused on the short term and making first-generation products. Next-generation cultivated meat products would be in much better shape if we had more understanding of tissue engineering and developmental biology, and probably many other fields.
Some relevant resources:
Chapter 3, “Exploring Unresolved Questions”, in the Good Food Insitute’s Student Guide.
The Science Behind Cultivated Meat, a series by Elliot Swartz.
A very recent Nature review on the bottlenecks and current challenges in cultivated meat—Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat. It’s paywalled, so let me know if you (or anyone else) needs help with that.
In addition to the answer by avacyn, which I endorse, I’d like to add that there would probably be several generations of products. At first, it would likely be a mix of plants and a bunch of muscle/fat/stem cells. Later generations might include more sophisticated tissues and cell differentiation process which would be necessary for more complex meat such as steaks. As avacyn said, the industry is mostly focused on the short term and making first-generation products. Next-generation cultivated meat products would be in much better shape if we had more understanding of tissue engineering and developmental biology, and probably many other fields.