Lab-grown meat is cleared for sale in the United States

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Today we’re spotlighting meat – but not the kind you might be used to. It’s grown in a lab and has the potential to dramatically change the food we eat and how it’s produced.

WHAT’S HAPPENING:

• The US Department of Agriculture has given approval to two companies to start producing and selling “cultivated” meat, which is grown from cell-based proteins in beer brewery-like vats rather than being sourced from animals.
• The USDA approval is for cultivated chicken that’ll be produced by two companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, the latter of which is owned by plant-based egg substitute maker Eat Just. Good Meat’s product is already being sold in Singapore.

WHY:

• Proponents of lab-grown meat point to two positives: Good Meat says it’s a more humane way to eat meat, pitching it as “meat without slaughter.” Advocates also say cultivated meat is better for the environment, because it reduces the need for greenhouse gas-emitting animal agriculture.

BIG PICTURE:

• While cultivated-meat makers tout the positives, the new approvals raise a number of questions. How does it taste? Will vegetarians eat it? Will it be affordable? And maybe most importantly: Are there health concerns? USDA says its approval, granted this week, follows “a rigorous process, which includes assessing a firm’s food safety system.” The Food and Drug Administration is also overseeing the nascent cultivated-meat sector.
• The livestock industry accounts for nearly 15% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. Cultivated meat could take a bite out of that by reducing the need for vast swaths of land to support livestock.
• Experts say it could have other benefits. Cultivated meat producers don't expect to use antibiotics in large amounts, so that could help alleviate antibiotic resistance problems among humans. Cultivated meat also cuts down on human-animal interactions and could lower the risk of virus spillover from animals to humans.
• It's unclear when cultivated meat will make it to Americans’ tables. For now, the companies have plans to try it out at restaurants in San Francisco and Washington, DC.

What do you think? Would you eat meat grown in a lab? Comment on today's newsletter to tell us if you're salivating, nauseous — or somewhere in between.

For more on this story, CNN Business’ Danielle Wiener-Bronner breaks down all the meat-not-meat details.

Here are some other stories we're following today:

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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was in a Russian court today, when he unsuccessfully appealed decision to keep him in detention until August 30. The US considers Gershkovich, an American who was arrested in March on spying allegations, to be wrongfully detained by Russia.

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