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  • Narrator: This piece of fried chicken was grown in a lab,

  • and it is the only kitchen in the world allowed to serve it.

  • It is cooked like any normal piece of chicken,

  • except no animals were killed in the process.

  • Instead, it was made from stem cells taken

  • from a live chicken and cultured in a lab.

  • The biggest reaction we get is people just say,

  • "This tastes like chicken."

  • And there's a surprise in the normalcy of it.

  • Narrator: Considering the growing challenge of feeding meat

  • to the 9 billion people on this planet,

  • this could be a food revolution that cannot develop

  • fast enough to take over traditional livestock farming.

  • We talked to American company Good Meat

  • to find out how this chicken goes from lab to table.

  • At 1880 restaurant, the kitchen staff are busy

  • prepping, and lab-grown chicken is their star ingredient.

  • Cooking with Good Meat is essentially the same

  • as cooking with regular meat, since it truly is meat.

  • Narrator: Last November, Singapore became the first country

  • in the world to approve lab-grown chicken.

  • Think about how commonly held that assumption is.

  • In order to eat fried chicken,

  • in order to have a rib-eye steak,

  • in order to have a hamburger -- real meat --

  • we necessarily have to kill the cow

  • or the pig or the chicken.

  • Doesn't have to be the case.

  • Narrator: Ten years ago, Josh cofounded what has

  • become the most popular plant-based egg brand, Just Egg.

  • When that worked, he turned his attention to meat.

  • Scientists start by collecting cells directly

  • from chickens in a biopsy-like procedure.

  • So they are what we call progenitor cells.

  • They can proliferate for a long time,

  • and they can essentially become every cell type

  • that you find in meat.

  • We can make muscle cells.

  • You can make fat cells, which provide a lot of flavor.

  • Narrator: The cells grow in a nutrient-rich broth

  • inside a bioreactor.

  • Imagine walking into a microbrewery and look all around.

  • But instead of beer in those steel vessels, there's meat.

  • Narrator: It takes two to three weeks for the meat to grow

  • and into a piece that can be cooked.

  • For now, Good Meat is only selling its chicken

  • to restaurants like this one.

  • We do do a breading on the chicken nugget.

  • It really adds this nice lightness,

  • a little bit of crispiness.

  • Narrator: For $23, curious customers can try it out:

  • an iconic Southern recipe of fried chicken and waffle

  • and a Chinese-inspired dish with bao bun and hoisin sauce.

  • But food experts say the jury is still out

  • on whether lab-grown meat will catch on.

  • There's a lot of doubt about GM-produced foods.

  • I have a feeling that lab-grown meat is going to

  • suffer the same ethical acceptability issues.

  • Narrator: And that's far from being their only hurdle.

  • They've been working on gaining regulatory approval

  • in the US and Europe for over two years now.

  • We had to generate a lot of data,

  • you know, to discuss with the regulators, to demonstrate

  • that we are producing a product that is safe and

  • of quality that meets the specifications that are

  • expected for meat products.

  • Narrator: The other challenge is scale.

  • The US alone consumes

  • about 400 million pounds of chicken every week.

  • Meanwhile, Good Meat is producing just

  • a few thousand pounds every two weeks.

  • That's a large gap to fill.

  • Next on their list, wagyu beef.

  • They're already working closely with a farm

  • in Japan and testing it in their laboratories.

  • About 80 companies

  • around the world are also trying to create similar products,

  • like Mosa Meat and Olive Farms,

  • as Good Meat paves the way for everyone in the industry.

  • Singapore provided an open door.

  • We got to walk through it now and do the hard work.

  • And if we're serious about pushing us to that world

  • where we can eat meat without killing an animal,

  • we have a lot of work to do.

Narrator: This piece of fried chicken was grown in a lab,

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