Although the thought of a juicy steak or chicken tender raised in a laboratory, disassociated from fur or feathers, may sound unappetizing, scientists say it's only a matter of years before we'll all be tucking in to 'in vitro meat'.
To one researcher in the growing field, Dr. Vladimir Mironov of the Medical University of South Carolina, it's not a question of how long it will take before seeing the products on store shelves, it's a question of how much it will cost to develop.
Dr Mironov told ABC: 'If I had 10 million dollars, then maybe 5 or 10 years'.
In fact, Canadian author Margaret Atwood's acclaimed dystopic novel 'Oryx and Crake' described just such a food stuff.
In the 2003 book, characters of the future munch on pinkish 'ChickieNobs', which are chicken nuggets made in a lab, without actual chickens.
Also that year, The Tissue Culture and Art Project by Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr and Guy Ben Ary invited guests to an art gallery in France to dine on meat grown in the lab from frog cells.
In a trend that perhaps suggests our growing alienation from the methods of our food production, urban legends have circulated for several years that this or that fast food chain has already been serving us meat from 'genetically engineered' animal parts that lack heads or hearts.
The fact remains that such production methods have remained out of reach, but are getting closer every day.
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