Insane dream idea: would it be possible?

[Homebody]

There are lots of plant based meat products for humans that are quite tasty, and do a pretty decent job of looking and tasting like processed meat. I'm a happy carnivore but eat this sort of thing from time to time because it tastes good; I really like Boca burgers, but there are more realistic products out there. I suspect that once this sort of thing gets more mainstream for humans out of necessity, it will trickle into pet food more and more (I'm assuming there is already plant-based dog and cat food).

There are complicated issues behind lab grown meat (most apply to the plant-based meat I just mentioned, too), and not the common ones that stem from irrational 'yuck' concerns. Some of them are environmental -- for one, the raw organic materials will have to be farmed in the first place, and the heavily industrialized practices that this will certainly entail are just those practices that are causing the most pressing environmental issues currently. Also, pushing the problem of human overpopulation down the road with more efficient food production will lead to Malthusian catastrophe (perhaps that's already begun) when the technological solutions run out (the jury is quite out on the overall benefit of the Green Revolution, and lab grown meat may ramp that up even more). The common selling point that such technologies save water, air and land depend on a very short term view of the benefits (about the length of one generation of investors and voters, by my estimate). There are also ignored social costs of shifting both food culture and farming practices more quickly than social structures can adapt.

To your first point, I would imagine that it would still have to be meat. You couldn't feed a pure carnivore a plant based diet. Right?

To your second point, the OP asked if it was realistically possible. Not whether it was a good idea. You raise very interesting issues on that score. Issues, we as a society will likely have to address in the not to distant future.