Here is what all these synthetic protein stories miss though: this was done long ago and shot down by the retailers. The retailers won't carry these products unless they are priced at a level that keeps them more expensive than conventional alternatives.

These alternatives can be sold on the shelves of existing retailers, but they can't be sold at a price that will hurt the sales of existing meat and dairy. Now that might sound like some kind of wild conspiracy theory if it weren't for the fact that we can point to technology very similar to that mentioned in this piece that was tried long ago and pushed out by the retailers. It was originally developed in the 1960s. It was also based on a methane gas feedstock using fungus to produce protein. The product was generically called mycoprotein:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein

And it was brought to market in the UK under the brand name Quorn starting in the 1980s after the government funded technology was transferred to a private company:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn

But the part that they leave out of the Wikipedia article is why this product was over-priced. The company failed once already because their sales were so poor and this was due to the high price. The high price was not because of the manufacturing cost, it was because the retailers refused to carry a product that would cannibalize their meat, dairy and egg sales. They would only carry it if it was expensive and in that case everyone would win --except the customers. The customers are what's really for dinner in the eye of the retailer and you can't change that and simultaneously allow the retailers to be in the driver's seat. If you think someone is prepared to take the retailers out of the driver's seat. I'd like to know their name.

I think in the US, Bernie Sanders might have been such a guy but we saw what happened to him. Just like cheap protein alternatives, politicians like Bernie Sanders are not allowed by the guys who are in control and those are the billionaires who own the retail shops you buy stuff at. They're the real enemy and unfortunately they are also your boss. What you gonna do about it? I think the answer is you're gonna pay whatever they tell you to pay and that means you're not going to see the drama that the guy who wrote this piece is predicting. Look to the past to see the future.