My colleagues and friends who work with giants like Tyson and Swift casually refer to their employers as “protein companies”. I always thought that was a bit weird. Proteins are biochemical compounds composed of polypeptides. Calling your agricultural product by its chemical formula may be the apotheosis of commoditization, but it doesn’t make me hungry.
It is going to get a lot worse, apparently. Soon enough, Big Protein will just grow the stuff in jars.
They might not be able to call it “meat” just yet. Under Federal regulations (9 CFR 301.2), meat has to actually come from an animal. That’s a relief.
The last time the USDA amended its definition of meat was 1994. The definition now includes the last bits of tissue extracted from the exterior of bones after processing through an Advanced Meat Recovery System.
