Are They Trying to Normalize Cannibalism? Absolutely
Taking the human steak idea a step further, a company called BiteLabs claims to be selling artisanal salami made from lab-grown celebrity flesh.17 According to their website, they intend to collect biopsy samples from celebrities, isolate the muscle cells, and then grow the celebrity meat using a proprietary bioreactor.
The lab-grown flesh is then cured, dried, aged and spiced according to Italian tradition. It’s unclear whether any celebrities have signed up to become salami, but the company does appear to be real. New York Grub Street wrote an article about the startup in 2014.18 IFL Science19 followed up in January 2022, noting that “It’s perfectly possible” to create salami from cloned celebrity meat.
Other examples of an ongoing effort to normalize cannibalism include a 2018 article discussing the benefits of teenage blood plasma,20 said to have rejuvenating effects. A 2.5-liter order was said to cost about $8,000 at the time. In a bit of predictive programming, the film “Soylent Green” — in which the protagonist realizes the government food being handed out is made from humans — was set in the year 2022.21 And then, there’s Katy Perry (below).