USDA approves sale of first-ever lab-grown meat from cultivated cells.
UPSIDE Foods, a California-based manufacturer, has become the world's first U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved cell-cultivated chicken meat producer and has been fully approved by the U.S. government for commercial sales nationwide. The company, which has received investment from Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Whole Foods founder John Mackey, will begin cultivation and sales of real chicken meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors. The lab-cultivated meat is being hailed as a possible solution for global warming, inhumane treatment of animals, and growing global hunger. The first availability of the product has not been announced yet.