PETA Offers $1 million For Lab Meat
By Pork news staff
| Thursday, April 24, 2008
In search of meat produced without slaughtering animals, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering $1 million for the recipe. The offer has scientists around the world doing research on ways to produce meat in the laboratory without killing animals. PETA, with more than 1.8 million members and supporters, is the world’s largest animal rights organization.
In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but it is widely thought that it will be several years before in vitro meat could be available to the general public.
PETA says that in vitro meat would spare animals from suffering. According to the animal rights organization, in vitro meat also would dramatically reduce the devastating effects the meat industry has on the environment.
To be eligible for the $1 million prize, the participant must produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012. The contestant must also produce the product in commercial quantities in at least 10 states.
Judging of taste and texture will be performed by a panel of 10 PETA judges, who will sample the in vitro chicken prepared using a fried "chicken" recipe from VegCooking.com.
Source: The PigSite.com
