Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft is a writer and historian. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; the New School for Social Research; and most recently at Wesleyan University. He was also a Visiting Scholar in Anthropology at MIT. His essays on food and other topics appear regularly in publications from Gastronomica to the Los Angeles Review of Books to the Hedgehog Review. He is @benwurgaft on Twitter.
A fascinating, thought provoking book. * New York Journal of Books * Wurgaft's investigation into cellular-grown meat's various industrial and cultural issues should stand as an essential introduction to the subject. * Publishers Weekly * A thoughtful examination of the technological, ethical, and cultural issues swirling around the development of artificial flesh. It's a quick-witted, journalistic survey of lab-cultured meat-how it's made, financed, and branded. Overlaying this complex brew are nuanced ruminations about the future of food and problems with industrialized agriculture, like the spread of zoonotic disease, environmental damage, and antibiotic resistance. . . . Dense but never dry, abstract questions and large ideas are interspersed with lively and fascinating conversations with rabbis about whether artificial meat is kosher and with tissue engineers about the possibilities of replacing organs in humans and leather in fashions. Rarified subcultures of venture capitalism and futurism are also penetrated. * Foreword * Chosen as one of the Big Indie Books of Fall 2019. * Publishers Weekly * Historian Benjamin Wurgaft explores [the] 'small, strange world' [of lab-grown meat] in a thoughtful study mixing science reportage with philosophical meditations. * Nature * A balm for those weary of the lab meat bluster-people tired of the endless promises, and done waiting for the better days ahead. * New Food Economy *