This story comes from NPR’s Next Generation Radio project:
Katie Kam dreams of selling lab-grown barbecue brisket out of a food truck. As an Austinite and longtime vegan, she thinks paying homage to the food truck scene in her hometown would be the perfect way to one day launch her product.
Kam, a fourth-generation Texan, is the founder and CEO of BioBQ, a cultured-meat startup. Cultured meat, also commonly known as lab-grown meat, is made from taking cells from live animals and growing them in an incubator or bioreactor until they form a meat-like product that can be consumed by humans.
“Pretty much anyone I would have a conversation with I’d be like, ‘Hey, have you heard about cultured meat? This is what it is. I think it’s the future,’” Kam said.
Cultured-meat researchers and proponents believe the product can one day provide a more resilient food source that’s safe from diseases such as bird flu or parasites, including screwworms. However, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law this year that bans the sale of lab-grown meat for two years, as of Sept. 1.
“Introduction of lab-grown meat could disrupt traditional livestock markets, affecting rural communities and family farms,” state Sen. Charles Perry said at a committee hearing in March. The Lubbock Republican authored the bill aimed at regulating lab-grown meat.
Kam, who has never been involved with state politics before, testified against the bill.
