Coming soon to a menu near you – the test-tube steak. Fact or fiction? The animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) announced recently that it will be offering a $1 million reward for anyone who by will be able to grow in-vitro meat that successfully mimics the look and taste of real meat, by 2012.
"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," said the group.
"Some promising steps have been made toward this technology," continued the PETA statement, "But we're still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public."
The million-dollar reward will go to the participant who manages to put test-tube chicken into commercial production and successfully sell it in at least 10 US states at a competitive price – sometime in the next four years.
As said in the statement, teams of researchers around the world are already working on producing meat in a laboratory, but in-vitro meat for dinner is still years away.
The New York Times revealed Monday that the scheme almost triggered a civil war within the headquarters of the organization dedicated to fighting for animal rights. But PETA argued the move would help avoid unnecessary suffering.
"More than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific ways. 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," said the group's statement.
As for selecting the winner, PETA is said to put together a team of 10 jurors who will be in charge of tasting each and every one of the synthetic entries, in order to make sure they match the texture and flavor of chicken. The winning specimen will have to score at least 80 out of 100 points to award its inventors with the a million dollars.
Ynetnews contributed to this report
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