I ate lab-grown salmon. It was nothing like I expected

What do you do if you want to eat fish, but you hate the idea of harming wild animals?  Or if you’d like a nice lox and bagel, but you’re concerned about mercury and microplastics—or the broader climate risks of industrial fishing. What are your options? One San Francisco startup has an answer: Grab cells from a salmon, grow them in giant tanks in a lab-like setting filled with a warm bath of nutrients that mimic the inside of a real fish, and then coax them onto veggie-based scaffolds to form a piece of premium fish that’s never touched an ocean. That’s the vision driving Wildtype, a lab-grown fish company based in San Francisco’s trendy Dogpatch neighborhood. I stopped by, met Wildtype’s cofounder Dr. Aryé Elfenbein, and tried some of the company’s lab-grown salmon firsthand. [Photo: Thomas Smith] The Fishery From the outside, Wildtype’s headquarters look like a nondescript industrial building. The only identifying mark is a stylized, W-shaped sign. Inside, though, it more close