AUSTIN (KXAN) – – The future of meat has actually gotten here and it is originating from the far-off past. This March, a meatball made from "woolly massive" meat was placed on display screen in the Netherlands.

The meatball, created by Australian-based Vow Food, was created to begin a discussion about the future of meat.

" We made the woolly massive meatball, not as a food, however truly as a way to begin a conversation," said CEO and Co-Founder of Vow Food, George Peppou.

This "cultured" or lab-grown meat is part of a larger pattern in the meat industry towards sustainable meat products that do not add to environment modification. According to the United Nations, 14.5% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are produced by livestock farming.

" It's about lowering the growth of animal industries, rather than trying to displace whatever that currently exists," Peppou stated.

" I believe fixing the system that we have currently in place is probably a much better use of our time and efforts then created an entire ‘‘ nother industry," stated Thomas Gardner, owner of Hudson Meat Market on South Congress.

Hudson Meat Market has been running in Austin for more than 50 years, offering locally-sourced meat to locals and travelers. "I think with cultured meat, you're presenting a lot of other things into meat processing," Gardner stated.

The possibilities of laboratory grown meat

Peppou said that their procedure permits them to grow meat from a variety of sources.

For the massive meatball, it was grown in a lab using proteins recuperated from woolly mammoth DNA. Those proteins were combined with Asian Elephant DNA, in order to fill some important gaps, and then grown in a barrel at Vow Food's laboratory.

The very same process can be utilized for other animals too.

In March, Vow Food brought the primary product they make, quail, to a display at South-By-Southwest. Individuals were able to sign a waiver and attempt the lab-grown quail meat, served in a dumpling, at a restaurant on Rainey Street.

According to Peppou, "While we've been making things like mammoth and quail, that's not truly how we see the future. So our view is that the future of meat is going to look a lot like breakfast cereal, where you can go to the meat aisle and have a number of different choices beyond beef, pork or chicken."

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When the meat is grown, the protein cells are put in the barrel, where they reproduce. Often the meat will look minced while other times it looks more like pulled pork, according to Peppou.

" They're flooding around, they're growing, we collect them, and we have the cell mass, that we can then become a range of different items."

Its those possibilities that a lot of excite Peppou.

Hudson Meat Market offers their own locally-sourced quail. "It's nice knowing that I can contact my supplier in Lockhart, he brings me his stuff. I do not understand if I 'd feel as comfortable calling some laboratory and having lab-grown quail brought over," Gardner stated.

Gardner said that the unique meats, like woolly mammoth, do excite him.

" With woolly massive, you're looking at something that's extinct. So yeah, there's like no way we would be able to source something like that. You know, it feels a little like Jurassic Park," Gardner said.

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Today, cultured or lab grown meat is just legal in Singapore. The United States is currently in the process of approving lab grown meat for sale.

In November, the FDA completed pre-market tests on lab grown chicken developed by UPSIDE Foods. Now, the business is waiting for approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It must be kept in mind, the woolly massive meatball can't actually be eaten. The proteins used to create it haven't been consumed by humans for more than 3 thousand years and the business states we may be allergic to them.