Prime cuts from the Ameglian cow

The Dish of the Day at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, as fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will know, was a prime cut from the Ameglian Major cow, an artificially created, speaking bovine quadruped, which was bred to actually want to be eaten. The beast unconcernedly offers diners its shoulder braised in white wine sauce. When the animal goes off to shoot itself, it winks at the more squeamish customers, telling them not to worry as “I’ll be very humane”. Advances in modern technology have got us used to life imitating art. So you will probably not be surprised to hear that today Ameglian Major steaks – or at least, cuts of meat that have involved no cruelty to the animal or harm to the environment, having been cultured from harvested animal cells in a laboratory – are already on the menu. Whether such grub will win broad acceptance by consumers, or profits for investors, however, remains to be seen.

A solution in search of a problem?

You might wonder what the point of growing