PETA's Challenge: Create Lab-burgers
PETA has announced a $1 million dollar prize to any researchers who could come up with a commercially viable "in vitro meat" product by 2012. (The LATimes has more details on the offer.)
It seems like an unusual offer from PETA, which typically promotes vegetarianism. Perhaps they're coming to terms with the fact that some of us just aren't willing to give up our beloved meat, although widespread vegetarianism would admittedly be better for both animals and the environment. In vitro meat--there seems to be a consensus on the message boards that it needs a new name--would solve both these problems. It's also a topic that we covered last year in our Global Lifestyles project (subscribers only).
This decision apparently inspired a near-civil war within PETA, dividing the vegetarian purists and the animal rights advocates. Despite the internal controversy, this appeal to carnivores takes "cruelty-free" meat beyond free-range chicken.
Think this sounds like a half-baked sci-fi plot? William Saletan of Slate points out that scientists have already done some pretty impressive work on other body parts (hearts, livers, etc.), so in terms of science, this really isn't so out of the question.
Image: VirtualErn (Flickr)
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Dorothy Voorhees
in Activism, Food
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