Ready for the latest oddity to come out of the 3D printing craze?

A startup wants to create 3D printed meat to fill the human craving for animal protein without continuing to take an environmental toll on the planet.

According to Cnet, billionaire Peter Thiel is directing between $250,000 to $350,000 from his philanthropic foundation toward Missouri-based Modern Meadow to create the bio-printed meat.

The company hopes to use the same technologies developed to create medical-grade tissues to bring food to the world's dinner tables (or barbecues).

"If you look at the resource intensity of everything that goes into a hamburger, it is an environmental train wreck," says Modern Meadow co-founder Andras Forgacs.

Don't get excited too fast — it will be a while before you can enjoy a 3D-printed steak on your dinner table. Modern Meadow wrote in its submission to the Department of Agriculture's small business grant program that its short-term goal is to create a slab of meat that's one inch long.

SEE ALSO: 3D Printer Creates Copies of Your Live Fetus

Is 3D printing the future of food? Would you eat a hamburger created from a 3D printer? Let us know in the comments if this makes you hungry or weirds you out.

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, BDMcIntosh