by Fred Abler

PayPal founder Peter Thiel has been making a lot of news of late. Earlier this week Theil sold most of his Facebook stock. Thiel invested about $500,000 in Facebook early on, and that investment alone.. made Thiel close to a $1,000,000,000.

So what to do with his Facebook winnings? The Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs has recently invested $350,000 in 3D-Printing of Meat. Yes, it’s hard to even say, much less contemplate. We need a clever euphemism… something like ‘additive protein meatrix’?

Modern Meadow will use the money to create an “edible cultured meat prototype that can provide a humane and sustainable source of animal protein.” The biotech startup is combining regenerative medicine with 3D printing to imagine an economic and compassionate solution to a global problem.

Fig 2 – 3D Model of MODERN MEADOWS 3D printed sandwich meats available on FormFonts.    The environmental and safety advantages are obvious. It might even taste good!

Modern Meadow’s immediate goal is to 3D print “a strip of edible porcine tissue”… bacon perhaps? The good news is the printed strips won’t contain any real meat. If you really want the juicy details, check out their research proposal on the USDA’s website.

In short:  Vegetarians rejoice. Bacon is coming! Just imagine the branding power of 3D-Printed Meats. “MODERN MEADOWS” can be printed into every smokey strip!

Sources:

• Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs
• Modern Meadow
• USDA 3D Printed Meat Research Proposal
• 3D-Printed Meat in Progress – Geekosystem
  3D-Ptined Meat just got backing from PayPal Founder – Webpronews