... briskly paced and quietly bold ... One of Purdy's strengths is his ease in exposition. He can even be charmingly teacherlike at times ... In covering the business side of cell-cultured meat, Purdy could have written a hagiographic account of Tetrick and Just; refreshingly, he chose not to. This could have been another Steve Jobs-type story no one needs, where a visionary has a great idea that will change the world and then, after the world gets changed — wait for it — said visionary gets really rich too. Then, as Americans, we're left undecided as to whether we admire the accomplishment or the wealth more. Instead, Purdy's book reads more realistically, like the teasing out of a tangled dance among entrenched meat producers, a few ambitious start-ups, early pioneers, regulatory complications and consumer skepticism ... It's the lack of heroes that, in part, makes this such an interesting story and topic ... in the depiction of Tetrick, Purdy is careful to allow him to tell his story, as well as capture others' stories of him, some of which are unflattering. Meat, however, stays front and center in this story. It keeps you hungry.
This is Purdy’s first book, and he sometimes falls into journalistic clichés. His story teems with the occasional 'make-or-break' moment or a light bulb going off in someone’s head. But the upside is that his writing is always punchy and readable, even when he is explaining the complex and gruesome biology of growing a new piece of flesh from an old one.
Taking readers from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong to Israel, Purdy brings a global perspective on how individuals and organizations are working to monitor, scale, and sustain this industry. Throughout the book, Purdy cites business reports and agricultural statistics to provide a greater context of these industries and draws on his conversations with important stakeholders, sharing their takes on cell-cultured meat. Readers interested in the restaurant and food industries, environmental economics, and food technology may find this fascinating and relevant to timely issues like environmental sustainability and global food systems.
