PETA Offers $1 Million for Synthesized Meat

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has offered a $1 million prize to the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.

“Scientists around the world are researching or seeking the funds to research ways to produce meat in the laboratory — without killing any animals,” PETA said in announcing the offer. “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 we're still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.”

While advocating that a vegetarian diet might be even better, PETA seems to acknowledge that some carnivores may be difficult to convert. So the animal rights group hopes technology could save the “more than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows killed every year for food in the U.S.” In addition, “in vitro meat would dramatically reduce the devastating effects the meat industry has on the environment.”

In case of multiple entries, there could be “a judging of taste and texture performed by a panel of 10 PETA judges.” Anyone looking for details on the competition? We didn’t think so.