US approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation's first 'lab-grown' meat

Chicken grown from animal cells, not from slaughtered birds, can now be sold in the U.S. The Agriculture Department issued approvals Wednesday to California firms Upside Foods and Good Meat to sell the products, known as “lab-grown” or “cultivated” meat. The meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg or a special bank of stored cells. The goal is to eliminate harm to animals and drastically reduce the environmental impacts of raising them. The meat will initially be sold only at upscale restaurants.