PETA wants scientists to make meat in labs… results may vary.

If PETA gets its way, your next tenderloin steak would have been created in a lab by a special food scientist. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering a $1 million prize to the first person to make “in vitro” chicken and sell it to the public before June 30th, 2012. PETA wants chicken to be created from animal stem cells, grown in a lab to mimic real chicken. That wouldn’t require the killing of any adorable animals. There are a few other rules and stipulations, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say that growing chicken meat in a lab that actually tastes like chicken is going to be difficult. Just think, many frozen chicken nuggets don’t even taste like real chicken!

In order to win the full $1 million, the chicken must “meat” PETA’s chicken standards, which is kind of odd considering the fact that many members are probably vegetarians.

• Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
• Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states.

PETA laments the fact that more than “40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific (but delicious) ways.” The site points out that humans don’t need to eat meat at all, and that a vast array of vegetarian mock meats satisfy most palates. Well, PETA wants to help those that can’t get over their “meat addiction” by offering a test-tube solution.

We’ve heard of test-tube babies, but not test-tube chicken nuggets! Do you think scientists can make test-tube chicken that tastes and feels like the real thing?

[PETA]

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