Plant-Based & Vegan Active Updated Aug 10, 2026

Engineering real meat proteins directly into food crops

Researchers used a gene gun to fire pig genes into the chloroplasts of lettuce and tobacco, getting the plants to stably produce myoglobin, the protein that gives meat its color, texture and flavor, and pass the trait to seed offspring. The stakes are whether crops can be engineered to yield enough animal protein to meaningfully feed plant-based meat products, using a fraction of the land, water and emissions livestock requires, before safety and scalability are proven.