u/Euphoric_Finding7011

I've been hearing about companies like Mondelez increasingly using lab-grown cocoa from companies like Israeli start-up Celleste Bio. Already just hearing "Mondelez" and "Israeli" makes me want to boycott but I want to understand:

1. Firstly, what the hell even is lab-grown cocoa - how is it made?
2. Is it better or worse for your health? When I started trying to learn about it, I saw lots of people talking about how normal chocolate has traces of heavy metals in them... Surely whole foods from nature would always be better than things grown in labs, no?
3. Will this help or hurt cocoa farmers? I understand that there are a lot of questionable ethical practices when it comes to the production of chocolate, so people try to get fair trade products to avoid support exploitative companies. Opting to buy lab-grown would probably make cocoa farmers lose business, but might also reduce pressure on them to produce so much and consequently might lessen exploitative measures. So will it help or hurt?