Technologies

What to Expect From Lab-Grown Chicken? It’s a Convincing Alternative to the Real Deal

Good Meat brought version three of its cultured chicken to the UN COP27 climate change conference, where I got to enjoy a taste. It’ll soon be available in US restaurants.

Dinner is served at the Four Seasons in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and tonight we’re having chicken – but with a twist.

Unlike all other chicken I’ve eaten before, this chicken was grown in a lab in Singapore from meat cells and shipped for a handful of lucky participants at the UN’s COP27 climate summit, in November 2022. Made by California-based Good Meat, this is version three of the cultivated chicken that’s hopefully going to help save the planet.

The US Department of Agriculture ruled on Wednesday that chicken grown from cultivated cells is both safe and legal for sale, which means Good Meat’s chicken could soon be available for sale in restaurants and stores — good news for our planet. We’ve reached a stage in history where the majority of people acknowledge the science of human-instigated climate change and actively want to help –but ideally, most people want to do that without fundamentally changing what they eat.

«We don’t like to talk about meat in the same way we like to talk about fossil fuels,» said Good Meat founder Josh Tetrick as he welcomed us to our al fresco dinner. It’s true that meat can be a tricky subject to broach, even in climate circles. The vegans protesting outside of COP27 every day go largely ignored as everyone files past to work out how to solve the climate crisis by literally any other means possible.

And yet as a global population, reducing our meat consumption is something we need to consider, especially in Europe and North America, if we are to make vital reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases – production of meat is a hefty contributor. There are three ways we can do this, said Tetrick. We can ask people to eat less meat, ask them to eat more plant-based products or make real meat without harming animals. This third option was listed as a recommendation in April’s report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Cultured meat is having something of a moment, with lab-grown chicken receiving FDA approval for the first time on Wednesday. At COP27, alternative proteins have been «on the menu in a big way,» said Bruce Friedrich, president and founder of the Good Food Institute. It’s a trend he hopes will continue now that food is finally being discussed in the context of the climate crisis. «In order to truly meet our global climate goals, we need to address how meat is made,» he said.

This is exactly what Tetrick and his team are doing in their Bay Area lab, and out in Singapore – the first place they can legally sell their products. Their goal? Make cultivated meat so good you’ll want to buy it instead of meat from slaughtered animals.

In order to perfect Good Meat products –starting with chicken, but with beef, pork and fish in the works –Tetrick has brought on board chefs, people who care deeply about food, in order to make something people will love. This feels like the recognition of something important: that food choices are tied up not just with the simple matter of liking and disliking different foods, but in culture, tradition and emotion. «The meat thing is pretty personal,» he said.

This evening, we’ll all have our own personal experiences with Good Meat’s meat and the chance to consider whether, given the choice, we might buy this instead of the endless packs of chicken breasts we tend to reach for at the grocery store.

Getting up close and personal with cultivated chicken

Really, the best tester for lab-grown meat I can think of is my husband, who is more carnivore than omnivore and struggles to recognize the legitimacy of a meal that doesn’t include animal protein. Unfortunately, he is not in Egypt and I am. That means the task falls to me to answer the question of whether Good Meat’s cultivated chicken is convincing to the point where he would consider choosing it over the «real» thing.

First things first, Good Meat isn’t pretending this chicken is a replacement for the whole bird he’d whack in the oven for his signature Sunday roast (although when I raise the possibility of such a thing with Head of Product and chef Chris Jones he gets very excited about trying to re-create chicken on that bone). For that we’ll need to continue buying a high-welfare chicken from our local butcher.

Instead, version three of Good Meat’s chicken is a direct replacement for the kind we tend to cook with at home at least three times per week –breast or thigh meat that we can pop in curry or pasta or a stir fry. And I’m pretty convinced it passes the test.

Skewered chicken served up on ceramic bowls

The first course we’re served involves a chicken kebab that balances just above the lentil and tomato soup it accompanies. This has been done purposefully so that we can taste the meat on its own at first and get a true impression of what it’s like.

Similarly, the third course is a simple piece of grilled chicken resting on top of aromatic rice, soy-glazed mushrooms, broccoli, chili curls and sesame seeds. We gather around to watch it cooking over coals, the char lines forming on the flesh, before we sit down to tuck in. The chicken certainly tastes like the real deal – much better than the processed chicken products you can buy right now in stores. There’s a tenderness to it. If I hadn’t known it was grown in a lab, I might not have picked up on it at all.

It’s brave of Good Meat not to gussy it up with seasoning and sauces, but Tetrick doesn’t seem interested in tricking people. He knows his chicken is a work in progress, involving endless fine-tuning to satisfy both the poultry-hungry people of the world, his fastidious on-staff chefs and himself – the boy from meat-loving Birmingham, Alabama.

As someone who has eaten various meat alternatives – Quorn and its friends – on and off for years, I’m personally ecstatic this product exists. But Good Meat wants honest, detailed feedback about what it can improve upon, so I channel my meat connoisseur husband and try to think what he would say.

Right now, the fibrous texture is still lacking. I think it also needs to be juicier and springier. Instead of bouncing back a little when you sink your teeth into it, it collapses too easily under pressure. Obviously, no one likes tough or rubbery chicken, but it’s lacking some resistance.

I’ve left the best until last, though. Perhaps my favorite dish of the day is dish two of our three-course tasting menu, which features crispy chicken skin. Tetrick admits that he has been snaffling it from the kitchen, and I can understand why. It’s substantive and has the buttery, fatty taste you want from chicken skin. I can’t imagine a more perfect pub snack with a cold pint of beer.

Unfortunately, living in the UK means I won’t be able to buy Good Meat’s chicken skin in my local grocery store anytime soon. The company doesn’t have immediate plans to expand there. After Singapore, the next big markets Good Meat wants its products to be available in are the US, China and the Middle East. The EU will likely be last due its strict regulatory environment.

In the meantime, Good Meat’s chicken will keep iterating. Tetrick knows full acceptance of his product by mainstream society is a ways off. Young people are more open to the idea of cultivated meat, he said. «Genetically engineered,» are the words he hears most often from people resisting it.

People have doubts and hangups because it’s so new, but that won’t be the case forever. «I hope one day no one thinks to ask the questions about this,» he said.

Technologies

Headphone and Speaker Memorial Day Sales 2025: Save Up to $150 on Audio Gear From Top Brands Like Bose, Apple and More

Technologies

Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Breakneck Expansion Releases Are Stressing Me Out

Collectors who want to complete a master set are finding that it’s just too hard to keep up with the game.

Pokemon TCG Pocket’s next Alola-themed set is releasing on May 29. Extradimensional Crisis is a sister expansion to the recent Celestial Guardians set — and it’s introducing the wacky and weird Ultra Beasts to the game.

Every Pokemon from another dimension now has a special Ultra Beast tag displayed just under its health point total. And certain Pokemon abilities and Trainer cards from the new set will only work on cards with this tag. While there are always new cards that shake up the metagame, this expansion looks ike it will largely introduce cards that play well with others in the set.

Extradimensional Crisis is one of TCG Pocket’s smaller base set expansions. These companion sets are often released a month or so after a big expansion. Mythical Island released after the massive Genetic Apex launch set, and Triumphant Light was the supplement to Space-Time Showdown.

Normally, I’d love to rip into packs in order to hunt more than 100 new base set cards being added to the game. Buzzwole, Nihilego and Guzzlord are some of my favorite monsters from the seventh-gen Pokemon games and the art for their cards is gorgeous.

This time around, I’m just not able to get as excited about the new drop.

Pokemon TCG Pocket is releasing expansions too quickly for me

I’ve played Pokemon TCG Pocket every day since launch. With few exceptions, I’ve opened both of my free daily packs — even if I have to stay up past my usual bedtime to do so. Ripping these suckers open has become a part of my daily routine, and I’ve been largely content to do so (even when I pull five common base set dupes).

But these expansions are getting a little out of hand now. For most games, having too much content is a good problem to have, but struggling to keep up with a collectible game saps the fun. Extradimensional Crisis will be the seventh set released in the game over the course of eight months. Despite my diligence, I’ve only completed a single base set — Shining Revelry — and I’ve never completed a master set with all of the full art cards and shiny Pokemon.

To be clear, I don’t expect to be able to keep up with every expansion in the game. I don’t even want to collect all of the secret cards — I just want to put together the base sets. I’m a fully free-to-play TCG Pocket gamer, and developer DeNA Games needs to make money to keep the app running. New releases grease peoples’ palms and keep the money flowing.

Even still, these releases have been dropping at such breakneck speeds that I don’t feel like I can return to past sets to finish collecting the cards I’m missing. It’s disheartening to complete the majority of an expansion and then leave it behind with so many gaps.

This sentiment seems to be shared among at least some parts of the Pokemon TCG Pocket community. It’s probably not a great sign when a contingent of the top comments on the YouTube video of your next big reveal are asking you to stop revealing things.

«Crisis? [The only] crisis is the one I’m having with so few hourglasses,» said one commenter.

Another person put things more plainly: «Honestly, I’d prefer if they’d slow the rollout of the expansions a little bit. Let the sets take hold for a few months and then drop bigger, higher quality sets.»

The joking hides real frustration, as many free players haven’t been able to complete the game’s full base sets. I’m not asking for these releases to be spaced out too far apart, but a single month between expansions is starting to feel untenable. Double the downtime between sets and let people breathe — and maybe I’ll finally be able to finish up Genetic Apex.

Technologies

Tariffs, Schmariffs! An iPhone 17 Price Hike Is Overdue, Regardless of Trump’s Threats

Commentary: Follow the math, not the tariffs and politics.

US President Donald Trump wants Apple to manufacture the iPhone, its best-selling product, in the US. And on Friday, he threatened to place a 25% tariff on the phone if the company doesn’t make that happen.

«I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,» Trump posted on Truth Social. «If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US.»

Adding uncertainty to his ultimatum, Trump later said the tariff wouldn’t apply to just the iPhone but also to any smartphone made outside the US.

«It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product,» Trump told reporters in the White House on Friday. «Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair.»

Despite tariffs and politics, the price of the iPhone hasn’t changed. But the launch of the rumored iPhone 17 will likely come with a higher price no matter what Trump says or does. Apple is considering a price increase and could attribute the rise to new and updated features instead of tariffs, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Since what Trump touted as «Liberation Day,» the iPhone and how tariffs might affect its price have been main focal points when it comes to this administration’s policies and pronouncements. Apple is the third-largest company in the US, and most of its products are manufactured in China. Clearly, the iPhone’s ubiquity has made it a symbol for the ongoing uncertainty of the US economy and politics.

But whether or not Apple gets taxed with tariffs, the iPhone hasn’t had a price hike in five years and is due for one. Historically, that’s the longest stretch of time the company has gone without an increase since the five years between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 7, which ended with the iPhone 8 launching at a higher cost. We can learn a lot by looking at how the company has handled earlier price hikes (and a one-time drop) and what that means for the iPhone 17 (it’ll likely cost more).

In terms of my methodology, I grouped iPhone models into a few categories: the standard, the flagships and the behemoths. The standard includes models like the original iPhone, the iPhone 8, the iPhone XR and the iPhone 16. The flagships include variants like the iPhone X, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro. And the behemoths designation is for phones like the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone XS Max and iPhone 16 Pro Max. There are other versions that Apple sold, like the iPhone 5C, the SE series, the iPhone Mini line and the current iPhone Plus line, that don’t factor into this analysis. Also, I use the US starting price for each iPhone before any carrier discounts are applied.

Standard iPhone prices

Since its debut in 2007, the standard iPhone has had four price increases and one correction. Many folks might remember paying $199 for the original iPhone, but in reality, the phone cost $499 off-contract. In 2008, Apple raised the price $100 with the launch of the iPhone 3G, to $599, where it would stay for four years. Then in 2012, the iPhone 5 was introduced with a taller, 4-inch screen and a higher, $649 price tag.

Fast-forward to 2017, the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, and the iPhone 8 debuted at a cost of $699, a $50 increase. Every year between 2017 and 2019, the price for the standard iPhone changed. In 2018, the iPhone XR launched at $749. The following year, the iPhone 11 came out, and the price dropped back to $699. And what makes that drop interesting is that the iPhone 11 was the first standard Apple phone with two rear cameras: a wide-angle and ultrawide. Up till then, all other standard iPhone models had only a single rear camera. From 2007 to 2019, when Apple increased prices it was in $50 increments, except between the first and second iPhone models.

Then 2020 happened. It was a wild year for the iPhone, and everyone, because of the pandemic. But Apple managed to launch the iPhone 12, which cost $829, marking the largest increase for the standard iPhone: $130. Subsequent models all had the same price: The iPhone 13, 14, 15 and 16 all cost $829.

If Apple follows its previous pattern, then the standard iPhone is due for a price increase. The last raise was in 2020, five years ago, and Apple has never gone six years without a price hike on the standard model. But will the company slowly raise the price over a few years like it did between the iPhone 7, 8 and XR? Or will it go all in like it did with the iPhone 12?

The standard iPhone is Apple’s most popular, and it’s safe to expect that the iPhone 17 will cost more (and would’ve even if Trump hadn’t been elected). Now we just need to wonder how much tariffs and politics might drive the price up even more.

The flagship: iPhone Pro model prices

Apple hasn’t always had an iPhone Pro variant, but it did starting in 2017 with the launch of the iPhone X, which had a starting price of $999. The phone debuted next to the $699 iPhone 8, making the 8’s $50 increase seem like nothing.

But here’s where things get interesting. Apple has never raised the price on the iPhone Pro model. The iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro, 12 Pro, 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 15 Pro and 16 Pro all cost $999. That’s eight years without a price increase!

What’s even more shocking is when you correct for inflation: the 2017 iPhone X’s $999 price would be $1,298 in 2025, according to the Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator. The iPhone Pro is overdue for a price hike, and expect the iPhone 17 Pro to cost more.

The behemoths: iPhone Plus, Max and Pro Max prices

Since 2014, Apple has sold a «big» version of the iPhone. Some of these were nothing more than a larger version of the standard iPhone with a bigger screen and battery as well as some minor differences, like the iPhone 6 Plus having optical image stabilization on its camera while the iPhone 6 didn’t. But beginning with the iPhone 7 Plus, the larger version started having «pro» features, like a second rear camera and portrait mode.

In terms of pricing, the iPhone 6 Plus debuted at $749, which was $100 more than the iPhone 6. And that $749 price stuck around for the iPhone 6S Plus and 7 Plus. In 2017, Apple had three iPhone models: the $699 iPhone 8, the $749 iPhone 8 Plus (a $50 increase from the 7 Plus) and the $999 iPhone X.

In 2018, Apple launched the $1,099 iPhone XS Max, which I consider the true successor to the initial iPhone Plus line. That means the big iPhone got a $350 increase in a single year, the largest Apple has ever made. I admit some people might not think the XS Max is a follow-up to the Plus and would deem it an entirely new iPhone variant. But this is my commentary.

Like the iPhone Pro, the Max and Pro Max would have the same price for years. In 2023, Apple raised the barrier of entry for the Pro Max model and didn’t offer a $1,099 version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max with 128GB of storage. Instead, you had to pay $1,199 for the 256GB variant, which technically cost the same as the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256GB of storage.

The iPhone 17 and 17 Pro’s prices

Even without tariffs, it’s safe to assume that the iPhone 17 lineup’s prices will be higher for some models. But when you factor in everything that’s happened this year, it’s hard to gauge just how much the price will go up and whether that’ll affect just one or two models, or apply across the entire iPhone 17 line.

Earlier this year, Apple raised the price on its most affordable model. Though it lacks the SE branding of the previous low-cost iPhone, the iPhone 16E came with a $599 price tag, $170 more than the $429 iPhone SE (2022).

Apple doesn’t talk about unreleased products or their prices. But we do have an unusual-for-Apple clue as to how these tariffs could affect the company.

«Assuming the current global tariff rates, policies, and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs,» Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a May 1, 2025, quarterly earnings call.

Obviously, that $900 million number wasn’t just for the iPhone, but for all Apple products. And that was three weeks before Trump threatened another tariff aimed purely at the iPhone. But $900 million is a lot for any company to swallow, and eventually that added cost will need to be made up for — unfortunately, that usually means higher prices (even if Apple is pressured by Trump to attribute the increase to «new designs and features.»)

If there’s one thing for certain, we’ll know exactly what those prices will be when Apple launches the next generation of iPhone models at its September event.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.