"A Dutch scientist today will unveil the world’s first beef burger created by stem cells harvested from a living cow, moving a step closer toward offering a sustainable alternative to meat production.
The 5-ounce burger cost more than 250,000 euros ($332,000) to produce, with the research being funded by an anonymous individual, said the scientist, Mark Post of Maastricht University. Two volunteers have agreed to sample the steak, which will be fried in a pan at a tasting event in London today."
I think with scale (and increases in technology), it will come down significantly. At the end of the day, this thing was nurtured from one singular cell (well probably more), and had to wait for the cells to divide, then divide again, etc etc… The article says that they need around 20,000 cells for one burger. Well since they already have the base, it should be exponentially faster to produce the next burger. (obviously going from 20,000 to 40,000 is just one cycle, whereas going from 40,000 to 80,000 would be one cycle as well)