Why not fake chicken?

NYT columnist Mark Bittman says it's not half bad, especially when compared with the stuff we normally eat. And it provides a way of eliminating the awful ways in which chicken are typically treated.

Ethan Brown, an owner of Savage River Farms, came to my house and fooled me badly in a blind tasting. (A pan-European "LikeMeat" project appears to be making progress on a similar product, and others are in the works.) On its own, Brown's "chicken" -- produced to mimic boneless, skinless breast -- looks like a decent imitation, and the way it shreds is amazing. It doesn't taste much like chicken, but since most white meat chicken doesn't taste like much anyway, that's hardly a problem; both are about texture, chew and the ingredients you put on them or combine with them. When you take Brown's product, cut it up and combine it with, say, chopped tomato and lettuce and mayonnaise with some seasoning in it, and wrap it in a burrito, you won't know the difference between that and chicken. I didn't, at least, and this is the kind of thing I do for a living. Brown does not see his product as a trendy meat replacement for vegans but one with more widespread use. (His production is at an early stage, but Whole Foods is planning to start using his products in prepared food soon. Retail sales of his "chicken," which does not yet have a trademarked name, are expected to begin this summer.)

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I don't believe chickens have souls, but it's obvious they have real lives, consciousness and feeling, and they're capable of suffering, so any reduction in the number killed each year would be good. If that's too touchy-feely for you, how's this? Producers have difficulty efficiently dealing with the manure, wastewater and post-slaughter residue that result from raising animals industrially; chickens, for example, produce about as much waste as their intake of feed.

Yeah, but what about price? Turning this small specialty business into something more would require the product to be a good deal cheaper than chicken. And chicken is already pretty cheap to produce. That's part of the problem.