Billion Dollar Burger

Chase Purdy narrates in a soft, modulated tone with a minimum of vocal flourishes. His task is to let this story of the high-tech race to create cell-cultured--or "clean"--meat tell itself. He succeeds. The story spans several continents as Purdy interviews entrepreneurs and scientists--and eats at a number of facilities. In this industry, human-created meats are grown in bioreactors to mimic the flesh of actual cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks. Purdy's journalistic goals are to discover who will first bring their burger, steak, or chicken breast to a grocery shelf near you, to delineate the issues (regulatory and industry opposition), and to explore the "yuk" factor of offering up cell-based protein in any form--whatever the environmental benefit and elimination of animal cruelty. A.D.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine