'Vatted' Chicken... Coming Right Up!

PETA Offers a One Million Reward To Anyone Who Produces and Mass-Markets a 'kill-less' meat.

In an interesting turn of events PETA, who is one of the largest advocates for turning people into vegetarians, has decided to back the idea of no-kill meat. PETA has decided to support the new technology so that the millions of animals that are abused solely for the purpose of killing them (such as chickens that are drugged to grow so large that their legs break from the weight, and thus have no life before being slaughtered).

The general idea is to figure out how to use stem-cells to grow meat in vats, and perhaps make them more healthy by controlling the fat levels. It is possible that vatted meat would be even more tender than the finest filet mignon or veal. The reason that veal is so highly prized is due to its tender nature because the muscles haven't been used and bulked up as much, which means in theory that vatted meat could far exceed these expectations.

PETA actually wants to begin with chicken, however. The deadline for this endevour is June 30, 2012. To win the vatted 'in vitro' chicken must be indistinguishable from traditional chicken's taste and texture. It must be produced and sold in at least 10 states by the deadline, and at a competitive price.

Considering the breakthroughs that have happened recently in moving forward towards 'growing' a human heart, it seems very possible and realistic that this could come to pass. Once the research is completed, in theory it would cost less to produce vatted chicken than traditional, considering it would not need to be shipped far; it would be sterile and not need antibiotics; it could be grown in every city. It might even be possible that one day you would simply grow it for yourself.

http://www.peta.org/feat_in_vitro_contest.asp?c=weekly_enews