Greg Wallace and Channel 4 really pulled wool over viewers’ eyes with their new mockumentary, but to be fair, it was very much advertised in a way that makes it seem real. On the Channel 4 website, the description reads, “With food prices soaring, Gregg Wallace investigates a controversial new lab-grown meat product that its makers claim could provide a solution to the cost-of-living crisis.”
The show, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat, saw the host go to a factory in Lincolnshire called Good Harvest, where a new, controversial, and lab-grown “human meat” was supposedly being produced. The presenter was told by those at Good Harvest that they believed that it could solve the cost-of-living crisis.
To say audiences up and down the country were disgusted was quite an understatement—and quite gullible, too.
Greg, who hosts a real series on BBC Two series Inside the Factory, tells viewers, “Under EU law, we couldn’t possibly operate machines like this due to legislation. But now we can harvest people and pay them for their flesh.”
The description of one scene from The Independent made me giggle: Apparently, children under the age of seven made for some of the best donors, and Greg was served some ‘toddler tartare.’ He was then supposedly served some of the meat by TV chef Michel Roux Jr. at his Michelin-starred London restaurant, Le Gavroche.
But despite it being bizarre and quite funny, the show was actually made to raise awareness for those who are struggling under the strains of the cost-of-living crisis.
At the end of the mockumentary, Greg really drives home what the episode is about, saying, “No wonder the state is behind their sacrifice 100 percent. The Trussell Trust says a future without food banks requires a benefits system that works for all and secure incomes so people can afford essentials. So it’s no surprise eating children seems a more likely path for our country.”
(featured image: screengrab)
