I remember my last steak vividly.
My wife (then girlfriend) had bought two ribeyes from our local butcher. I'd spent that afternoon reading "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer - the book that would change everything.
I told her I was going to become vegan. She looked at the steaks she'd just bought and suggested I start tomorrow instead...
I knew with absolute certainty this would be my last steak, yet I still ate it. Something about trying to savor that final taste of something I'd enjoyed for so many years.
That was thirteen years ago. Since then, I've never touched meat - but not because I stopped enjoying the taste. I chose veganism for ethical reasons, simple as that.
Reading about the latest developments in cultivated meat brings this memory back. The idea that soon I'll be able to eat a real ribeye again - actual meat, just produced differently - is remarkable.
I've been watching this space develop for years. From regulatory approvals to the first products hitting markets in Singapore and the US, it's clear we're getting closer to having these options widely available.
What's fascinating is that teenage me who used to eat everything from venison to oysters would never have imagined we'd be growing real meat in facilities rather than farms.
That last steak thirteen years ago won't actually be my last steak ever. It'll just have been my last steak from a slaughtered cow.
And I'm completely fine with that.
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