(FINANCIAL TIMES) - It started a few years ago, talking to a couple of food journalists online. "Are you getting a load of PR contact around lab-grown meat?" We definitely had, but had we actually seen any of the stuff? Tasted it? Nope. Promising samples were mentioned, in a locked-down lab somewhere, but no, "at this time" we couldn't actually see it.

This was all very strange. When you write about food, you're used to cheery PRs wanting you to sample a bit of artisanal gin, to be nice about a restaurant, to think about what sort of biscuits you'll be recommending at Christmas. Usually, there's something to taste, a package to look at. It's about a product that actually exists. But this was different; big international public relations firms wanting us to excite our readers about something that hadn't actually happened yet.