Peter Thiel and his gang of billionaires from the Theil Foundation have just invested 6 figures in a startup Modern Meadows, who hopes to change the concept of meat “manufacturing” forever…by printing 3D meat! The startup aims to solve a worldwide problem, creating “meat as a more environmentally-friendly way to satisfy a natural human craving for animal protein,” as opposed to the currentmeat on the shelves of our local stores containing chemicals detrimental to human health.

It’s funny because this synthetic meat isn’t anything new; boneless printed meat (sometimes called “shmeat”) has appeared in a Star Trek episode when Captain Kurk disrupted Thanksgiving dinner  in 2266 because he was complaining the synthetic meatloaf looked too much like turkey.

Currently Modern Meadows doesn’t have their site up and running, but have a long list of goals outlining their overall goals for the 3D engineered meat project. “So far, bio-printing has been applied to build three-dimensional tissues and organ structures of specific architecture and functionality for purposes of regenerative medicine. Here we propose to adapt this technology to building meat products for consumption,” the summary said.

The whole 3D printing thing makes me a little wary, but I’m all about making meat more ethical and well, you know, safe to eat.

(via CNET; photo via Geekosystem)