Eindhoven's Next Nature Lab is running an IndiegOgO fundraiser for a "Meat the Future Cookbook" — a piece of design fiction setting out recipes we might be able to prepare when in vitro meat-growth is the norm. There's meat grown from your own flesh, cultured in a medallion you wear around your neck while it matures; rainbow meatballs, meat that you knit, meat-paint that kids use to paint edible pictures, meat cultured from samples of extinct dodos and dinos, and transparent meat "sushi."
There's four days left, and &eur;25 gets you a copy of the cookbook (&eur;15 for a digital version). Next Nature produces some gorgeous books on these lines, so it's a good bet that Meat the Future will be a lovely little piece.
We're fascinated by in vitro meat…
Next Nature, the group behind the In Vitro Meat Cookbook, has been exploring in vitro meat for over two years. Many of the book's speculative recipes come from the Next Nature Lab at Eindhoven Technical University, one of the best design schools in the Netherlands. We've also produced a dedicated in vitro meat exhibition, currently on view at the Rotterdam World Food Festival. Not content with a book, lab and exhibition, we even made a special "in vitro meat ice cream cart", with actual, edible ice cream flavored with bacon, beef and (pretend) polar bear.
…but we're still undecided about it.
Just because we're in vitro meat experts doesn't mean we think it's the only (or even the best) solution to the global protein crisis. We're not starry-eyed activists, nor are we bound to the meat industry's agenda. Just like you, we want to make informed decisions about which meat future we actually want.
What will the cookbook look like?
The book's design refers to the old-fashioned cooking bibles your grandma might have owned, combined with contemporary typography and photography. The effect is a timeless design that fits with the speculative nature of the book. The involvement of renowned art director Hendrik-Jan Grievink will guarantee an top-notch result.
(via Wired)
