Reply #37: At present we can't do that for a variety of reasons....

[mike_c]

I'm not going to review them all here because it's a bit OT and would get real professorial real fast :-), but the major stumbling blocks have to do with the finite lifetimes of animal cell lines. Keeping them going requires (at present) fusing them with cancer cell lines or constant replacement from stem cell stocks-- and a whole host of as yet unsolved problems with nudging them to become the sort of cells we want, form the tissues we want, etc. We're just not there yet. Current clonal technology still requires that animals self assemble in utero.

But we're working toward exactly what you're proposing, and I agree with you about farming muscle tissue-- it could be a real boon to food production and would be WAY nicer to animals than what we do today. Its still over the horizon, though.