One step closer to vat meat
Apr. 21st, 2008 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundFor once, (maybe the only time), PETA is doing something useful.
PETA plans $1 million prize for creation of in vitro meat
"The organization said it would announce plans Monday for a $1 million prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."
The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat. An international symposium on the topic was held this month in Norway. The tissue, once grown, could be shaped and given texture with the kinds of additives and structural agents that are now used to give products such as soy burgers a more meaty texture.
New Harvest, a nonprofit formed to promote the field, says on its Web site, "Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting and more humane than conventional meat."
Of course, it seems to have touched off nerves in PETA itself:
"But, Newkirk said, the decision to sponsor a prize caused "a near civil war in our office," because so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed.
Lisa Lange, a vice president of the organization, said she was part of the heated exchange. "My main concern is, as the largest animal rights organization in the world, it's our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat." Lange added, "I remember saying I would be much more comfortable promoting eating roadkill."
Newkirk said the disagreement was natural, "We will have members leave us over this."
On a note, I can't digest non-animal protein, one of MANY reasons I'm not a vegetarian. But I've always been curious as to what some vegetarians or vegans would do if the animal cruelty angle was removed from the picture. Not to mention that it would remove a major reason for some people to adopt that dietary habit.
PETA plans $1 million prize for creation of in vitro meat
"The organization said it would announce plans Monday for a $1 million prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."
The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat. An international symposium on the topic was held this month in Norway. The tissue, once grown, could be shaped and given texture with the kinds of additives and structural agents that are now used to give products such as soy burgers a more meaty texture.
New Harvest, a nonprofit formed to promote the field, says on its Web site, "Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting and more humane than conventional meat."
Of course, it seems to have touched off nerves in PETA itself:
"But, Newkirk said, the decision to sponsor a prize caused "a near civil war in our office," because so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed.
Lisa Lange, a vice president of the organization, said she was part of the heated exchange. "My main concern is, as the largest animal rights organization in the world, it's our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat." Lange added, "I remember saying I would be much more comfortable promoting eating roadkill."
Newkirk said the disagreement was natural, "We will have members leave us over this."
On a note, I can't digest non-animal protein, one of MANY reasons I'm not a vegetarian. But I've always been curious as to what some vegetarians or vegans would do if the animal cruelty angle was removed from the picture. Not to mention that it would remove a major reason for some people to adopt that dietary habit.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 04:55 am (UTC)And I would have no problem with the product myself, I eat meat but having butchered my own I don't exactly enjoy the idea of death for food. I'm pretty open about my feelings there.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 02:36 pm (UTC)