This Thanksgiving, Paul Mozdziak will be giving thanks that people are finally paying attention to his big idea.

He wants to grow turkey meat in 5,000-gallon tanks.

Mozdziak is an expert in growing avian muscle cells in a lab flask. That obscure corner of research recently landed the North Carolina State University professor of poultry science at the cutting-edge of “cellular agriculture,” or the idea that animal protein could be manufactured in bioreactors rather than by animals.

The technology, also known as in vitro meat cultivation, may sound strange. But it has been drawing a following of environmentalists, animal-rights activists, and investors who think meat can be made by biotech companies rather than on farms.

“Years from now, when people are [in] the grocery store trying to decide if they want to buy traditional versus cultivated meat, I am 100 percent sure that cultured meat is going to be just as cheap, if not cheaper,” says Mozdziak.

The idea of cultured meat took flight in 2013, when Dutch scientist Mark J. Post went on British TV and cooked and bit into the first lab-grown hamburger. The experiment cost more than $300,000 and was paid for by Google founder Sergey Brin.

Proponents say in vitro meat could reduce reliance on farm animals and save resources. This summer, Mozdziak was a featured panelist at a conference put on by New Harvest, a foundation that promotes “animal products without animals.” The San Francisco event featured innovators presenting their versions of lab-grown beef, gelatin, egg whites, and milk.

Mozdziak’s research begins with a pencil-eraser-size biopsy of a turkey breast. Then the job is to isolate stem cells known as satellite cells, which multiply and fuse to build up existing muscle fibers. By manipulating these prolific cells in a warm broth of glucose and amino acids, Mozdziak essentially tricks them into behaving as if they are still inside a turkey.

In theory, the growth potential is enormous. Assuming unlimited nutrients and room to grow, a single satellite cell can undergo 75 generations of division during three months. That means one cell could turn into enough muscle to manufacture over 20 trillion turkey nuggets. Surveys suggest about half of vegetarians would eat meat if it came from a lab.

“Muscle to me is the most fascinating tissue and cell type that exists,” says Mozdziak, who earned his PhD studying satellite cells. “Let’s just put it this way—I find a lot of beauty in turkeys.”

Lab-grown meat is still far from being economical. In Mozdziak’s lab, his team grows cells as a thin layer inside plastic flasks. If the cells become too thick, nutrients can’t get in. Growing a turkey-size amount of white meat this way would require about 11,340 flasks and about $34,000 worth of growth serum.

Hultz Smith, a scientist charged with studying long-term innovation for Tyson Foods, the Arkansas food processing giant, says his company is keeping an eye on cultured meat, but isn’t yet ready to invest. He thinks scientists are still far away from making a dent in the $675 billion global meat trade.

At the New Harvest conference, Smith asked the audience of cultured meat impresarios how many believed they were ready now to scale up their research into a real business. “Crickets,” says Smith. “Not one hand raised.”

One company, Memphis Meats, has turned cattle stem cells into ground beef, but so far at a cost of $18,000 a pound. Another, Modern Meadow, dropped its highly publicized plans for laboratory beef chips and instead is working on synthesizing leather, a far more valuable commodity.