PETA Coughs Up $1 Million Reward For Artificial Meat

Jason Chen — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:30:00 EDT

PETA doesn't mind if you eat meat; they just want that meat to not be from a dead animal. The organization cares so much about this that they've offered up a $1 million prize to the first scientist that can create meat that's "sufficient to market in at least 10 U.S. states at a price that is competitive with then-prevailing chicken prices." In essence, fake meat.

There are upsides to this, such as engineering extra vitamins and nutrition into meat so you don't have to eat vegetables AT ALL if you don't want to. Or take out some of the fat and bad stuff for you. Or in PETA's own smug, condescending words, "consumers who can't get enough cholesterol and saturated fat in their diet could indulge their cravings without harming animals." [PETA via Wired Science via DVICE]

Test Tube Burgers by 2009?

Charlie White — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:11:32 EDT

A team of researchers hope to create lab-grown meat by 2009 that smells and tastes just like the real thing. The ability to grow small quantities of muscle using stem cells is routinely done by scientists, but now they're looking to bring mass quantities of synthetic meat to supermarkets. One of those researchers, Paul Kosnik, is growing self-assembled muscle in the lab:

"All of the technology exists today to make ground meat products in vitro. We believe the goal of a processed meat product is attainable in the next five years if funding is available and the R&D is pursued aggressively."

The researchers say the first artificial meat products will be minced meat that tastes just like ground beef or sausage. They're also saying that a single stem cell could theoretically produce all of the meat consumed in the world for a year.

It's going to be a challenge to create just the right mixture of muscle and fat to give burgers that juicy, yummy taste. If this test tube meat can be mass produced, it will be a great boon to our non-sustainable meat-eating culture. Oh yeah, and they also will need to convince people to eat it. – Charlie White

Test Tube Meat Nears Dinner Table [Wired News]

Gizmodo: artificial meat

PETA Coughs Up $1 Million Reward For Artificial Meat

Test Tube Burgers by 2009?