Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.

But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption.

2050? I'll be dead by then.

Mark

They could have increased the retirement age considerably by then.

I won't care because I'll be dead.

Mark

With any luck we will have killed the planet by then too so there won't be anyone to eat any meat.

Two words : Soylent Green.

Mark

We could all just eat at KFC.

You know that's not real meat.

I like the idea of growing meat in a lab, provided they can get the texture and taste right. A soggy pile of protein cells does not a steak make, even if it's chemically identical.