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

Trump Maintains US‑Iran Negotiations Continue Amid Tehran’s Denials of Duplicity

President Trump insists that US‑Iran talks are ongoing despite Tehran’s denial of any negotiation plans, while warning that only a deal or total surrender will allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Conflicting statements from both sides have heightened uncertainty as the conflict enters its sixth month.

On Monday, President Donald Trump asserted that negotiations between the United States and Iran are still taking place, even after Tehran stated it has no intention of engaging in direct talks with Washington.

In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump labeled Iran’s leaders “unbelievably duplicitous,” claiming they are lying about ongoing peace talks “whether Iran wants to admit it or not.” He repeated his assertion that the United States completely controls the Strait of Hormuz, despite maritime traffic through the crucial route lingering at only a small fraction of pre‑conflict levels.

He wrote, “Nothing reaches Iran unless we allow it, and nothing will pass unless a deal—or total surrender—is achieved.”

Earlier that day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters there is no imminent plan for U.S.–Iran negotiations, contradicting Trump’s earlier comment that talks would resume Monday afternoon. Baghaei added that Iran’s only current discussions are with Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflicting statements have heightened uncertainty over the peace‑talk process and the broader conflict, now in its sixth month.

Trump’s assertion about new negotiations came a day after he said on Truth Social that he had agreed to cancel a massive strike against Iran “subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.” He said in the same post that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off on that attack because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

Trump has claimed dozens of times throughout the more‑than‑five‑month‑long war that a deal is at hand. No permanent deal has been signed, and a temporary ceasefire reached in June has fallen apart.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to launch devastating strikes against Iran before backing off. After the latest example, oil prices on Monday fell and stocks surged.

BMI, a research unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note Monday that a broader diplomatic understanding on reopening the Strait of Hormuz is still achievable this quarter, while raising the probability of its escalation scenario to 35% from 25%, citing mounting military, diplomatic and economic signs of rising U.S.-Iran tensions.

“Diplomatic progress is likely to be punctuated by periodic military flare-ups, while miscalculation by either side could trigger a renewed escalation,” BMI analysts wrote in a note. The firm said the key issue to watch is the future governance of the strait, as the Iran-Oman talks — potentially backed by Gulf states, China and the U.S. — point to efforts to build a post-conflict shipping framework.

Shipping risks persist even as diplomacy appears to be advancing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said it received a report of an incident 20 nautical miles (23 miles) northeast of Khasab, Oman — at the mouth of the strait — with a tanker’s master reporting an explosion in close proximity to the vessel at about 20:37 UTC Sunday (4:37 pm ET). The vessel and crew were safe and authorities are investigating, UKMTO said, advising ships to transit with caution.

The proposal Trump announced over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue ironing out some of the thorny issues that had derailed diplomatic efforts, according to The Associated Press, citing a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

The official said the proposal also includes a reopening of the Hormuz Strait and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., for its part, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil, the official said, adding that no deal has been reached, although the mediation efforts remained underway.

Trump’s weekend reversal has lowered the temperature after days of escalating attacks across the Gulf. Kuwait said Saturday that Iranian forces launched a wave of drones within its airspace, with its military destroying multiple aircraft after Iran targeted critical infrastructure in the country’s north.

A parallel track with Muscat is also advancing. Iranian diplomats said Tehran was close to reaching a new arrangement with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a deal critical to preventing the war from escalating further, according to the Financial Times.

Iranian officials said negotiations over future management of the Hormuz Strait with Oman, which sits on the opposite shore of the waterway, are in their final stages. The agreed shipping route would be different from those used before, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Baghaei, adding that the new route was separate from the issue of the strait’s reopening or continued closure.

Technologies

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Halts Planned Iran Strike

Oil prices dropped after Trump cancelled a planned strike on Iran, with WTI down about 5% and Brent near 5% lower. He said the move followed requests from Tehran and regional allies for a pause while a deal shaping the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program is negotiated.

Oil prices fell on Monday after President Donald Trump announced he had cancelled a planned strike on Iran. WTI futures dropped roughly 5% to $80.34 a barrel, while Brent slipped about 4.7% to $83.77 a barrel.

Trump said early Sunday he called off the strike after Iran and several Middle Eastern nations asked him to hold off, noting that the outlines of a deal had been agreed upon. He added that the prospective accord would entail the immediate, full opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to his Truth Social post.

The president had been considering another round of strikes as diplomatic hopes waned since the conflict began on February 28. He said the U.S. and Iran would meet for talks on Monday, but Iran denied any scheduled negotiations with Washington, citing PressTV. Iran’s foreign‑ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei clarified that Tehran was only discussing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. In a follow‑up Truth Social message, Trump insisted that, regardless of Iran’s acknowledgment, the United States is indeed discussing a solution to a long‑standing problem created by Iran.

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as Trump Cancels Planned Attack on Iran

Oil prices fell sharply after President Trump announced the cancellation of a planned strike on Iran, citing a new deal that would open the Hormuz Strait and end Iran’s nuclear threat.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump announced that he had called off a planned strike on Iran.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, slipped roughly 5% to close at $80.34 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 4.7% to settle at $83.77 a barrel.

Trump made the announcement early Sunday, saying he had canceled the strike following requests from Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries.

In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

The president indicated that the proposed agreement would include the immediate, complete, and total opening of the Hormuz Strait, as well as an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.

Trump had been weighing additional strikes amid diminishing prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that began on Feb. 28. He stated that the U.S. and Iran would hold negotiations on Monday.

Tehran denied that talks were planned with Washington, according to state news outlet PressTV.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was only holding talks with Oman regarding the routes ships can use through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump added that whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused for decades.”