Conditions
Conditional, of course, on this not being the case by the end of 2023 (>99% chance IMO). If this is the case by then, this resolves N/A.
If Whole Foods ceases to exist before I can buy a cultured meat product there, resolves N/A.
If it doesn't happen by market close, resolves to "Later than 2026".
Resolves to a given year as soon as the conditions for resolution are met.
No price minimum or maximum.
No geographical condition (wherever Whole Foods operates at the time of resolution).
If someone can provide conclusive evidence that they purchased a qualifying item at a random Whole Foods (see definition below), resolves to whatever year this happens.
Terms
By "cultured meat" I mean any item that would normally be described as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb, seafood (e.g. fish, shrimp, lobster, cephalopod, shellfish), or other broadly construed kinds of meat but is labeled "cultivated", "cultured", "synthetic", "lab-grown", "in vitro" or other equivalent names. That is, meat produced by means of cellular agriculture, by brands such as GOOD Meat, Upside Foods, Solaris, and Wildtype. I am not including products such as dairy or eggs.
EDIT (11/15/2023) on hybrids: I will rule out products that contain 50% or less cultured ingredients (in net weight). Depending on whether hybrid meats such as SciFi Foods cross that threshold, they may or may not count. (See my answer to Jake in the comments.)
By "random Whole Foods" I mean a regular Whole Foods store in a medium city (pop. 100,000-300,000). If I don't have access to such a store at the time of resolution, I will ask a trusted person to verify for me.
By "being able to buy" I mean that the item is available for purchase by the public at at least one store. I may not buy it; I may not want to buy it; I may not have the funds to buy it; I may even be banned from all Whole Foods stores—yet I would still be able to buy it for the purposes of this market.
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@traders heads up that I probably won’t wait until December 31 to resolve this. Whole Foods currently explicitly prohibits the sale of cultivated meat. I don’t see them doing a 180 and suddenly making it widely available in the next couple months.
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/quality-standards/meat-standards
Update (Nov 9, 2026): As previously announced, I'm resolving early to free up people’s mana. Whole Foods’ meat standards still say “Cultured or lab-grown meat is prohibited.” This morning I asked their customer service chat whether that standard is under review. The answer was that they have no information to share about potential updates to their standards or product offerings, and that any change would be communicated publicly. Even a policy change tomorrow wouldn’t be enough though, because there are simply no products to stock nationwide. No US supermarket chain sells cultivated meat and the main producers have already started diversifying when they haven’t simply closed shop. Among the companies with federal clearance, Wildtype says it isn’t pursuing grocery sales and Upside has no retail product. Believer shut down in December 2025.
With seven weeks left, I see no path to a qualifying purchase at a random Whole Foods before December 31.
@PaperBoy unfortunately literally can’t with that kind of market. I can only resolve to the correct answer(s).
@Noit That would fall under ‘later than 2026’. If it’s still no by 2030 that’s what it will resolve to.
@JCE Thanks, difficult question. The spirit of this question is mostly- or fully-cultured meat. I am going to rule that the product needs to contain >50% cultivated meat. I don't know what ratio will be typical of SciFi products, but my understanding their products are unlikely to contain more than a majority of cultured ingredients. Does that sound reasonable?
@NicoDelon I’m fine with that. I think most hybrids will be a much lower ratio, eg 20% and mostly fat at that.