The Meat Industry is famously horrible. Conscious animals contribute to climate change and pollute water—increasingly with antibiotic-resistant bugs—and industrial slaughter could qualify as torture. Plus, there’s the fecal soup. But meat remains delicious. Yeah, meat substitutes exist, but what guilt-ridden omnivores really want is exactly what they enjoy now, without all the downsides. The answer, hopefully, is lab-grown meat, built from cell samples that grow into the same tissue you chow down on.

In Seth Goldman’s vision of the supermarket meat case of the future, he doesn’t see a meat case at all. He sees a protein case. And only some of the proteins in it will come from animals. “I want to see chicken protein, plant protein, beef protein,” he says. “Just like what has happened in the dairy case.” Goldman, who founded Honest Tea, last year became executive chairman of the board of Beyond Meat, the California company whose high-tech approach to plant-based meat substitutes has attracted such investors as Biz Stone and Bill Gates.

Traditional food industry lobbying groups in Washington have for years been dubbed “The DC Barnyard,” but a fresh face is about to bring a new flavor of foodie influence to the US capital. The Good Food Institute represents the interests of the clean (think burgers made without slaughtering cows) and plant-based food industries, many of which are working on the cutting edge of food technology. Its mission, it says, is to help sustainably feed the more than 9 billion people who will live on the planet in 2050.

Scientists and businesses working full steam to produce lab-created meat claim it will be healthier than conventional meat and more environmentally friendly. But how much can they improve on old-school pork or beef? In August 2013, a team of Dutch scientists showed off their lab-grown burger (cost: $330,000) and even provided a taste test. Two months ago, the American company Memphis Meats fried the first-ever lab meatball (cost: $18,000 per pound).

American protein fiends who want a break from yogurt cups and Clif bars will soon have another option: meat bars. Starting this summer, Hershey’s will introduce a souped up version of jerky from its Krave Pure Foods division, which the company acquired last year. If the concept is a bit bizarre, so are the flavors: black cherry barbecue, basil citrus and pineapple orange. Meat snacks are a tiny category in the US, said Marcel Nahm, the vice president of US snacks for Hershey’s.

Meat, eggs and milk could be produced in lab without killing or harming animals thanks to microbe cultures. The future of food as we know it may be forever changed, allowing even vegetarians and vegans to eat hamburgers and milkshakes again.

The hamburger is a nearly complete reflection of America through the 20th century. Popularized by White Castle and McDonald's, burgers only became the cheap, fast food we know and love in concert with improvements in food preservation, mass production lines, long-distance freight, and agricultural yields. This efficiency led to excess: Red meat consumption rose through the mid-1900s until it was overtaken by America’s love affair with chicken over the last few decades.

Get ready for the “second domestication.” Memphis Meats wants to completely reinvent meat production by bringing it into the lab. The company, founded by three scientists, wants to be the first to sell meat grown from stem cells. They have already grown small amounts using cells harvested from cows, pigs, and chickens, and they expect their products will be ready to enter the market within the next five years. Competitors...

A Danish city has ordered pork to be mandatory on municipal menus, including for schools and daycare centers, with politicians insisting the move is necessary for preserving the country's food traditions and is not an attack on Muslims. Frank Noergaard, a member of the council in Randers that narrowly approved the decision earlier this week, says it was made to ensure that pork remains "a central part of Denmark's food culture."

As TransCanada files a NAFTA claim for $15 billion against the U.S. government over the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, we turn to another case in which massive trade agreements have infringed on the U.S. government’s ability to pass legislation...Amy Goodman speaks with Lori Wallach.

Hollywood film-maker James Cameron tells Tom Heap why his whole family is now vegan because of climate change. First broadcast on Farming Today, 1 December 2015.

Is "free-range" or "pasture-fed" better? Now you can cut through the mess of marketing claims and take responsibility for the meat you eat.