PETA offers $1M for lab-grown meat

PETA offers $1M for lab-grown meat
mongabay.com
April 23, 2008

Animal rights' group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has offered $1 million to the first scientist who can create lab-grown meat in quantities large enough to be sold commercially and is indistinguishable in taste from the real thing.

"PETA is offering a $1 million prize to the contest participant able to make the first in vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012," the group said in a statement posted on its web site.

In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells grown in a medium. The resulting meat would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten without killing animals.

PETA says it is offering the prize because "more than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States". PETA believes this production results in great suffering among livestock.

"In vitro meat would spare animals from this suffering," PETA explained in a statement. "In addition, in vitro meat would dramatically reduce the devastating effects the meat industry has on the environment."

Commercial meat production has been linked to air and water pollution and results in large emissions of greenhouse gases.

PETA says judging 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.

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