A New Kind of Veggie Burger

PETA has offered a $1 Million reward to the first scientist able to produce in vitro meat that is indistinguishable from real meat. PETA explains that the meat would be produced from animal stem cells that have been “placed in a medium to grow and reproduce.” The decision to support in vitro meat production was motivated by the realization that many meat-eaters are unwilling to change their carnivorous ways. As PETA explains,

“[m]ore 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 cages so 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 will decide upon a winner by putting the meat to a taste and texture test. (Anyone who has consumed a vegetarian sausage lately knows that taste and TEXTURE matter.) Ten PETA judges will evaluate the in vitro chicken in the form of a fried chicken recipe from Vegcooking.com. If a scientist’s chicken receives a score of 80 or above, he or she will take home the prize.

This new alternative to ‘real’ meat promises to be tastier than what is currently available. It also promises to reduce suffering in a dramatic way. But does this form of meat production raise ethical concerns of a different variety? Does in vitro meat degrade the value of animal life? Does it imply that animals are mere ‘things’ that can be manipulated, taken apart, and used for our own purposes?  Are they?

Have your say below.

Read the announcement on PETA’s site here.

2 Responses to “A New Kind of Veggie Burger”

Commented on August 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm by Fabuzz

Hehe, you want meat ? Here is meat, but without suffering.
They just play with natural/artificial distinction, some guys will still refuse to eat it : “I want natural meat”, but from a scientific perspective it would be all the same.
Peta is playing with psychology, maybe moving the problem rather than solving it. The positive thing is “they create new tastes for vegetarian”, but food isn’t meant to look like meat. Basically, food just serves us to have good health. It happens it can taste good or bad, when good it helps in satisfying the need ;-)
I’m not sure people really need meat taste to eat, even if they say “I can’t live without meat, I like it too much !”.
Food is so various, other countries (indian, muslim food…) makes us discover some new world, vegetarian food is one of them. Sticking to one may rather be a matter of traditions.

PS: hope Nietzsche agrees.

Commented on August 29th, 2008 at 6:37 pm by Ben

This is an interesting development and one I hope is a great success.

I see eating meat as it’s a predominantly selfish act that society carries out because it is so heavily part of tradition. Most don’t understand this viewpoint and there is a serious lack of regard for the animals. Education is key, if people had to kill the animals themselves they would think twice. Just because something tastes good doesn’t justify your actions, there should never be a price put on suffering. In this regard humanity is incredibly unenlightened.

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