Just when I was starting to turn a corner on this whole fake meat thing, a new wrinkle gets thrown into the mix.

Now, don’t start filling my Inbox with hate mail. The only reason that I would side with the fake meat side is for the opportunity to help fill a protein void in some people’s lives. Yes, I would prefer that they instead eat pork, or beef, or chicken, or even lamb. But, if a “Frankensteak” will help a malnourished population get much-needed protein, who am I to stand in the way.

The level of what I will call “silliness” in creating these fake meats took an even stranger turn with the recent announcement of an investment to use industrial 3-D printers to replicate the texture, flavor and experience of meat products.

I’m sorry, but I do not see the same mouth-watering “experience” of the family gathered around the printer waiting for that steak to be “printed,” as that same family waiting on the back deck waiting for the chops and burgers to come off the Traeger or Weber grill.

The same crowd that originated this push for fake meat, has often shouted the evils of “factory farming,” which I still don’t know the meaning of. But, actually, now I do. Chops and steaks created by a printer in a sterile setting just screams “factory” to me.

Nope, for me, I’ll take my chops, loins and roasts coming out of a pork processing plant. That’s 3-D enough for me.