By “there,” I mean Israel, fast becoming the nexus of cultivated meat technology for the planet. And in Tel Aviv I visited several cultivated meat companies to learn about their technology and, yes, sample the end product. Spoiler alert: It was good — truly good — all of it.

I tacked the trip to Israel on to the end of our tour of duty at IFFA in Germany. That show was remarkable in a number of ways, one of which was the extent to which alt-meats — primarily plant-based substitutes — were incorporated into the program. While IFFA still celebrated all things animal protein- and butcher-related, every major exhibitor was doing double duty with its conventional and alt-meat messaging. Several smaller companies that are dedicated to the meat alternatives market also were there, and busy.

Based on what I saw, I would expect that the composition of IFFA exhibitors and attendees has permanently changed.

For me, the headliners were the companies I visited in Israel, if only because, as an audience of one, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge in a short period of time.

One question I had was why Israel had emerged as the front-runner for fostering technology and business growth in the cultivated meat space, in particular. The government there has invested heavily in the companies at the start-up and proof-of-concept stages. I learned that for a small country such as Israel, despite its roots as one arm of the Fertile Crescent and a long history as a successful agrarian economy, the idea of food security is an up-close-and-personal, daily consideration. As a matter of self-preservation, small countries would be unwise to depend too heavily on other nations as a source of food.

To that end, then, the hoopla over food-tech and meat substitutes of all kinds is more than hype; the issue is a matter of national security.

The Israeli government’s investment already has pushed the technology and the industry a long way. While Singapore remains the only country to have approved the sale of cultivated meat, and the only company that’s selling it there is U.S.-based, I believe Israeli technology will be at the front of the pack whenever regulators in other countries make up their minds about cultivated meat for human consumption.

I’ll be there, too, at the front of the line with my order. The cultivated beef and chicken items that I sampled, in small amounts, were absolutely delicious. The experience varied, depending on the techniques used to cultivate the cuts. And the whole-muscle versions were a bit denser and chewier than their conventional meat counterparts, but the flavor was spot on. Of note were hybrid chicken nuggets pairing plant-based “meat” with cultivated chicken fat; it wouldn’t work for vegans or vegetarians, but this omnivore would happily have ordered a whole 10-piece nugget meal (hold the French fries).

I don’t have previous experience to compare my tastings against, but based on what I’ve read over the years, cultivated meat technology has come a long way from what was described as a dry, rather taste-free cultivated burger served up by Mark Post in 2013.

I have to take my hosts’ word for it that the cost of these delicacies is drawing ever-closer to a price a consumer would consider paying; the exact make-up of the growth medium — a major factor in cultivated meats’ cost — is a matter of proprietary information.

But as a foodstuff, the cultivated products I tried were absolutely plate-ready. My belief that we were still some years away from widespread palatability of these novelties has been corrected; I’d buy them today, if the price was right.

But the trip reinforced another belief of mine: That the conventional meat sector and the alternative meat sector are growing, and will continue to grow, ever closer. While many players in either business persist in treating the other as “the enemy,” the fact is both are aiming at the same end-user. Synergies between the two sectors exist, as nearly every major meat processor has already figured out.

Plant-based options dominate the market so far, but based on my experience, cultivated meat is shaping up to be technology that will bring the sectors together.

Yep, I went there

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