What if you could have your animal and eat it too? Or even better, not have your animal and eat it too.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is offering $1 million to whomever figures out how to grow meat in labs. The winner must develop a commercially viable chicken-meat product that does not contain, or make use of animal-derived products, except for starter cells obtained in the initial development stages.
Basically, PETA wants someone to use stem-cell science technology to skip the whole bird, and go straight to the bucket of chicken. Sound like you want an extra order of biscuits? To see what animal activists have to say, read more.
Animal activists, including those within PETA, feel the contest abandons the philosophy that animals are not ours to eat. They also argue that the health risks of a carnivore diet — including obesity, diabetes, and cancer — will not be appeased.
Proponents counter that this is a practical solution, which could end the maltreatment of animals, such as caging, drugging, and brutal slaughtering.
Do you think PETA is compromising its mission with this contest, or making the ethical treatment of animals more realistic? With all the news about the origins of meat and its environmental impact, is this a step in the right direction? Would you eat an in vitro chicken-meat product?
Catherine Malandrino
Apepazza
Temperley London
UM. EW.
1It sounds gross. However I do think it's somewhat admirable to TRY to appease meat eaters. However AGAIN, their beliefs that animals aren't for humans to consumption is a bogus, annoying, and judgemental line of hooha!
Eating meat is an instinct. Not eating meat is a choice.
I already did my rant on Betty's blog about this.
I'm not a PETA fan.
2I second the EWW NYFashionista.
Side note: I know this isn't PC, but I Peta would but its money and passion to use fighting for starving abused children (as in human beings) instead of mice and chickens.
As long as people are dying, I see a duty to worry about people before pets.
3For all I know I'm not eating "real" chicken at this point anyway.
I think this is an interesting project that PETA has come up with. I don't think it compromises their mission.
I think that the diet argument is a stretch and their focus should be on the cruelty.
4I agree 100% zeze! AMEN!
5Zeze,
There is a charity group, Farmers and Hunters feeding the hungry.
Peta is totally against them. They say that they are just coming up with reasons to kill animals.
Hunters give meat all the time to homeless shelters.
6I'm glad you said that.
7We are supposed to eat an animal diet because we are omnivores.
I think the focus should be on the companies & ranchers providing the beef and helping them to raise it in a more humane and environmentally acceptable manner.
8what novel ideas, redegg!
When i saw the video of cows being mistreated at the slaughterhouse in Cali a month or more ago, that just broke my heart. but that speaks more to me about psychopathic human behavior.
9ha, I honestly expected people to say, "there are groups for that already, what about the cute puppies - you animal hater"
I'm glad commonsense is still around.
hartsfull, are you seriouse?????
Ugh... disgusting.
10Zeze, here is the website: http://www.fhfh.org/Home.asp
Redegg, ranchers do not raise cattle inhumely.
There are SOME factory slaughter houses, that have done bad things. It is certainly not to the extent Of Eisnitz would like you to believe. She has been discredited.
11Thanks for the info, I just can't imagine having these beliefs, I mean if a kid and dog are in a burning building would Pamela Anderson save the dog first?
12While I'll agree that humans are not meant to be carnivorous but in a minimal sense omnivorous. I do not agree with PETA's philosophy that animals are not ours to eat. We are part of the animal kingdom and animals eat each other that is how the world goes round. We've just manipulated the process with gluttony in all the wrong places.
If one likes meat all you need is 4oz per week to maintain a healthy level of protein the rest of your diet should be vegetables, fruits, grains etc.
13Hartsfull, I'm not meaning to imply ranchers are raising them inhumanely. But environmentalists I'm sure are concerned about them tooting so that could be addressed, although I have no idea how. The slaughterhouses practicing inhumane treatment should be addressed as well.
My grandfathered raised black angus so I understand how well many ranchers treat their cattle.
14The first link is the food safety and inspection service that talks about Eisnitz editing videos of the slaughter house. B-t-w her group has been DENIED by the BBB.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/news/2001/humanestatement.htm
The second is Dr. Temple Grandin who has done extensive research in better as more humane ways to ranch and farm. We (as in us RANCHERS) like her.
http://www.grandin.com/
This is a link to compassionate farming.
15http://www.animalcompassionfoundation.org/about.html
Sorry Redegg, I got all worked up. Forgive. 
16OH darn, I just posted good sites that made my point but I guess I'm not supposed to do that. I don't see them here.
17This seems to be another wacky PETA stunt. If someone were able to create non-animal meat, it would be worth way more than $1 million. (I still wouldn't eat it, or frankenveggies, for that matter.) Can't imagine the fake meat would be a huge consumer hit, though.
Most of the meat consumed in the US is from animals raised on factory farms; for instance, four corporations own more than 75% of the cattle farms used to make beef. It's nice to think of happy cows munching grass, then peacefully and painlessly killed by a rancher. But that's an exception, not the rule. Most of the cows, chickens, pigs, et cetera live miserable, disease-ridden lives in tiny cages. Sorry to get on my veggie soapbox, but these are the facts.
18Ah! Bella! Where are you getting your info? They are not facts.
19Redegg, "tooting" made me LOL. Sounds like your grandfather was a smaller rancher. I do think smaller ranchers/farmers care more about their craft and their animals and plants. I grew up in the country and saw that first-hand. But it's getting harder and harder for farmers to stay afloat with huge competition. My mom works for a farmer and she was amazed by how much money it costs to run the operation — and this guy has a small farm!
20Hartsfull, the info is in The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a great, fascinating book — worth reading no matter what your dietary choices are !
21What is your definition of a small rancher?
Thank you, I'll have to pick up the book. If it has anything by Gail Eisnitz in it I'm gonna go bizerk. NO wait, I've already done that.
I was going to say earlier, that animal suffering when killed is detrimental to a person in the meat business. It effects the meat.
Even if we were sadistic people with no heart. I don't know any ranchers or farmers who are. We still wouldn't want that because it is bad business.
22Also, I want to make sure I make the point that I don't care if people don't want to eat meat or whatever. I totally respect other peoples choices.
23they should talk to this excellent little vegetarian chinese restaurant i go to for lunch in oakland - the lemon "chicken" tastes just like the real thing. also, morningstar farms invented "Chick'n" a long time ago... this is a stunt to draw attention to the cruelty of the factory farm industry. $1 million is nothing when it comes to real food research. taco bell probably spent $10 million developing it's creepy fake meat sludge - and the fast food zombies like it so much they are open 24 hours a day serving it!
24Peta: People Eating Tasty Animals...
Steak and chicken are the two main staples of my diet. It's nice to live in cattle country.
25A lot of the stuff about inhumane treatment in slaughter houses, comes from Eisnitz "undercover" work in the slaughter houses. When the food safety investigated her work they found the videos had been edited. Her group, Humane Farming Association has also been denied by the BBB.
Most farmers and ranchers DO try to do as humanely as possible in raising and killing animals. There is a Dr. Temple Grandin who is respected and admired very much. She has put tremendous efforts in finding better ways.
I tried to put links but it didn't work before. You'll have to look it up under Food Safety Inspection service and Gail Eisnitz. And Temple Grandin has a website too.
I also got all fired up about this topic before and wrote a blog of my own. If you went to my profile it's there. But I said a lot of it here.
26I don't agree with PETA at all, and I'm a vegetarian. And to say humans have to omnivores is ridiculous. I'm Indian, and come from generations of vegetarians. Or maybe we're inhuman.
27I like the bumper sticker. "Save a cow, eat a vegetarian!"
28Ugh, the amount of pretentiousness/general ignorance in this thread annoys me. Humans are NOT natural carnivores, rather, we've been eating meat for so long that we are now able to eat it without getting sick (debatable, though, being that obesity/heart disease/cancer is running rampant). Furthermore, are you people insane? How would eating lab-meat be ANY more disgusting than eating a sick, abused, malnourished slave animal? It just goes to show how utterly blind people are to what happens to their 'food' before they eat it.
29I think PETA's idea is a great one. True, we should focus on other facets of the farming-crisis; like, as someone else mentioned, promoting farms that are more humane... but I don't see how just having one more possible outlet would hurt anything. Whatever will save humanity/animals faster is fine by me. Something has GOT to change.
I HIGHLY recommend a good reading of "Dominion" by Matthew Scully.
Undave, how original and mature of you.
Hartsful, would that be the same Dr. Grandin who advises fac. farms on how to make animals' lives less stressful, only to have her advice mostly ignored? They only hire her so they can SAY she supervises their treatment. They pay for her name. I wouldn't use her to raise your point if I were you.
30For instance, how she told a client that the pigs would be more content if they had a toy - something soft and pliable - to chew on, only to find that they had been given metal bars & tires hung too high for them to reach.
31Who only hires for that? Can name them? We actually do a lot of her suggestions. I know of many ranchers who appreciate her. Is that the same Gail Eisnitz who has been discredited by every federal food safety? The same the BBB wont back? When was the last time you've been to a farm? Or ranch?
32Are you able to sell that too? I hope you don't step in the stuff preach.
33Ahhhh, so it's clear now! Well, clearly you have an objective standpoint. I would go to a farm in a heartbeat if I were allowed. Want to let me onto yours? Seriously, message me the address, I'd LOVE to come visit.
34I love for you to come here. What do you know about ranching. What point would that be if you are already programed against eating animals. What is YOUR objective?
35I don't need your approval.
36MY objective is for people to know the truth & make a choice that is based on FACT, not based on a fact that is desperately concealed and hidden away. My objective is for people to be healthy, for the earth to be healthy, and for animals to be healthy. I'm not the one who stands to lose all my money by the spread of vegetarianism, so I'd guess I'm a bit more objective than some. Not to mention the fact that my husband, father, mother, and I all **used** to eat meat until we made the clear, conscious, educated decision not to. Message me the address, I'm being totally serious. It would be a great experience for me.
37No, you don't. I never said you did. "Farmers" don't need anyone's approval, and that's precisely my problem.
38I'm down for no cruelty to animals, and understand that eating meat is hard on the enviroment as well as your body BUT! I don't think trying to develop and cruelty free "meat" is the answer. The fact that your creating something in a petri dish and then wanting people to eat it not knowing the long term side effects is a bit scary and seems a little unethical too! I give PETA a pat on the back for trying but they should go another route!
39YOur problem is that you want to find something wrong. You have no other agenda but to put meat eating in a bad light. There is nothing nobody can ever do to make PETA, and that means you, see any other point of view. They/you are fim on your views. There is NO such evidence that exists because you will not recoginze it. Ever.
40Pardon me, but I am NOT synonomous with PETA, just so you know. PETA is an extremist organization, and as per the USAF I am not permitted to be a member, even if I wanted to. My interest is the truth. I respect small farms where the farmers aren't suits in a big building who pay out to illegal immigrants handling the animals. Would it be nice, in my opinion, if everyone would just realize how great a vegetarian diet is? ABSOLUTELY! But I would be so elated if farms would just treats the animals as the living, feeling, suffering beings that they are.
41So tell me, what about that makes YOU feel so threatened?
Actually, I'm outta here. Feel free to message me that address or anything else you want to tell me, because I'm sure by the time I next log on this thread will be about 150 posts longer.
42Can we just all agree to disagree, I have reported the "spam" of post to Teamsugar. If you don't agree with someone it's not necessary to counter post every comment made, yes this is a free country and everyone should have a right to speak there mind, but this is a little over the top. People with other equally valid opinions have a right to be heard and the over posting is a deterrent to other intelligent conversation. So can the 3 plus posters stop.
43You are an extremist. Dont hide behind our military. I already knew that you were in the AF. LOL
I am not threatened by the truth. You however do not speak of truths. Other than the fact that USAF would not allow you to be a member.
If you want to be vegan. Why can't you just be vegan and leave people alone? Why is YOUR opinion so rightous?
44I disagree with the cruelty, but PETA has gone to far(again)...someone needs to stop that bit....I mean, organization
45Basty - We really like debating with each other here. So we don't consider it spam.
Harts I can see your point and Foxie I can see yours too... I think there are many misconceptions on both sides.
The problem with PETA extremists is that they make no distinction between those who are good ranchers and those who aren't... because they are EXTREMISTS.
As for the books mentioned, there are many more books about how awful people are to animals that completely ignore the good people, its very in vogue to be self-righteous on many issues, this being one of them.
Personally I don't feel that people who eat meat are uneducated anymore than vegans are uneducated. Again, its a personal choice. If you (the general you, no one in particular) don't wanna eat meat, don't eat it. But don't lecture and look your nose down at people who do, because I don't do that to vegetarians or vegans or whatever...
I could go off on a rant about PETA as much as anyone else, but it all boils down to a good idea that has gone horribly wrong.
46bastylefilegirl: thats what's so great about this site - there are people on every side of the issue. if you don't like it you are free to read another article. personally, i'm finding this debate very interesting.
47harts I've heard of that organization where hunters can donate their meat, thats such a great idea. one deer could feed a family almost all winter i bet... in my area there are many low income families, and i know hunters here do a great service to them by donating that meat.
48Why don't we just go eat a tree limb and follow it with a piece of asphalt and drink the runoff from the pig farm, instead?
Considering that PETA is one big "lie" putting it nicely. If you doubt, check out myspace. com/thetruthaboutpeta
I like my meat to be real, thank you.
49foxie,
50Thank you for your comments.
You are right, thousands of years ago, our ancestors ate just about everything (rocks, leaves, dirt, etc...). Someone (maybe the einstein of his time) came apon dead animal, and founf that it was much more filling, so then we became hunters as well as gatherers. We have the benefit of thousands of years of evolution to thank for being able to eat meat.
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