India, Aug. 21 -- There is suddenly a lot of interest in protein in India.

Supermarket shelves are filling up with protein products. Soya chaap is on a bewildering array of restaurant menus.

Meanwhile, debates over what Indians should eat, and what should be served as part of school meal schemes, have become intertwined with religion and politics.

That makes the timing of Bruce Friedrich's new book, Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food - and Our Future, particularly interesting.

This isn't about becoming vegetarian. It's about asking whether meat can be reinvented.

"This book isn't about policing your plate," Friedrich writes. "This book is about meat at the macro level: how meat is made,...