For the first time in history, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are actually encouraging people to eat meat, but under unique conditions that only future science can develop.
On the group’s website they claim to offer $1 million to the first scientist who can create “in-vitro-meat,” real, edible animal flesh that is developed in a laboratory instead of through suffering and cruelty. The process would use animal stem cells placed in a medium to grow and reproduce, thus mimicking flesh that could be cooked and eaten.
It’s actually not entirely in the realm of science fiction, The Observer writes:
Artificial animal organs, such as hearts, have already been grown. Stem cells from chickens – or sheep or cows – would have to be seeded in a nutrient-rich mixture and then grown on a solid framework. That framework would have to stretch and bend in order to flex the meat and cause it to develop into muscle. That muscle can then eventually be harvested as meat.
Some very small quantities of such meat have already been grown. The first edible in-vitro flesh was developed from a goldfish in 2000. Numerous companies and scientific research groups are already exploring the field.
Some PETA supporters are conflicted with the proposal, but the organization insists on its website that such a development could be the most rational solution to end animal cruelty:
More than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific ways. Chickens are drugged to grow so large they often become crippled, mother pigs are confined to metal cagesso small they can’t move, and fish are hacked apart while still conscious—all to feed America’s meat addiction. In vitro meat would spare animals from this suffering. In addition, in vitro meat would dramatically reduce the devastating effects the meat industry has on the environment.
PETA might be coming to further terms with the fact that meat eaters are here to stay. Trying to convert anyone into something they’re not is nothing but an uphill battle. In-vitro meat may also allow meat eaters and vegetarians to tolerate each other further. At the same time, PETA still isn’t backing down from the stance that, “vegetarians are less likely to get heart disease, diabetes, or various types of cancer.”
A million dollars isn’t much on the table in the world of science and bioengineering, but there might be one scientist willing to make it his or her own to see less animals turn up in our bellies.
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