Meat and morality: Will people eat lab-grown meat? With Matti Wilks, PhD, and Daniel Rosenfeld, PhD

This episode explores consumer attitudes toward cultured meat, a novel food source produced in a lab setting. Against the backdrop of the FDA and USDA's approval for cultured meat sales in the U.S., the discussion highlights the significant consumer hesitation despite potential environmental and animal welfare benefits. More significantly, the interview with two psychologists delves into the psychological factors influencing these attitudes, focusing on the role of moral values, disgust, and the "natural-is-better" bias. For instance, a significant portion of consumers express moral objections, viewing cultured meat as "unnatural" or "playing God," while others exhibit a reluctance stemming from disgust. In contrast, the psychologists also note that a substantial number of consumers are at least open to trying cultured meat, though fewer intend to make it a dietary staple. The discussion concludes by considering the challenges facing the cultured meat industry, including scalability and cost, and suggests that focusing on consumer-centric aspects like price, taste, convenience, and social acceptance will be crucial for wider adoption. What this means for the future of cultured meat is that overcoming these hurdles will be key to its success as a viable alternative protein source.