Meet Shmeat: Test-Tube Meat

Earlier this year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced that it will offer a $1 million X Prize for the creation of affordable, humane, and "commercially viable" test-tube meat by 2012. This announcement, not at all surprisingly, piqued public curiosity (for starters, why is PETA endorsing anything with the word "meat" in it?).

I assure you that you are not alone in your ambivalence about test-tube meat. When I first read about test-tube meat, I experienced psychological delight at its humanitarian prospects coupled with a simultaneous gag reflex at the thought of actually eating it.

Test-tube meat is also known as in vitro meat, cultured meat, victimless meat, vat-grown meat, hydroponic meat, and, finally, shmeat. (Note to self: Be sure to apply for inevitable X Prize to rename this stuff.)
Read the full story here.

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Comments

[mouselion]

05:45 PM on 12/17/2008

IOW, PETA supports GMOs.
How sure are they this is safe and without environmental/health risks?

Seems to me they want to have the taste of meat and not feel guilty about it (save their cow and eat it too). Why not just be vegetarians?
If you are truly trying to champion the cause of ethical treatment of animals, you'd want to forgo the desire of eating meat -- otherwise you are symbolically perpetuating the same mindset. . .

[eklawson]

06:59 PM on 12/16/2008

Seems like a great waste-reducing alternative for people who only want to eat things like boneless, skinless chicken breast and hot dogs. Me, I really like the gristly, organey bits so I'd still need my natural animal-made meat.

[kidflash]

05:31 PM on 12/16/2008

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm test tube weenies? Arggggggggghhh.

[lam3036]

03:20 PM on 12/15/2008

to ddanimal-

It must be nice to go thru life so blissfully ignorant. Check your facts before spouting such inaccurate info.

[harrymellon]

04:50 AM on 12/15/2008

Awesome!!!!! I love it. Why cause suffering to God's creatures if we have no need to.

[pokemon]

03:18 AM on 12/15/2008

My answer was to begin growing and processing my own. Trust me I still eat meat, just allot less because I am the one processing them. I free range, they are happy and organic, but I do eat them in the end so PETA would not approve.

Answer is to LOCOVOURE, there would be more smaller farms to meet demand from locals, and the bigger processing that PETA hates would be a thing of the past.

[ohiomark]

08:38 PM on 12/14/2008

I prefer all beef hot dogs made from ground up cows and I like to eat them sitting along the first base line at a baseball game on a warm August evening.

[Ezerbio]

10:19 PM on 12/13/2008

Not too long from now, it will be common to replace limbs and organs in our own bodies with "test tube" human flesh from stem cells so what is wrong with making cow flesh in the same fashion? I see lots of benefits from this, environmental, humanitarian or ethical. It is ironic to think this is gross when most of what we eat is highly processed, chemically altered, sickening food.

[ddanimal]

03:04 AM on 12/15/2008

Whos "we"? I dont eat that crap. And I wont be eating this wacky test tube meat either.

[lvogt]

04:31 PM on 12/13/2008

Appalling.

[MGhamma]

12:19 PM on 12/13/2008

Sounds like the plot for the prequel to Soilent Green.

[mredder4]

02:42 PM on 12/12/2008

Sounds shdisgusting.

While I agree with all arguments that the mass-production of animal meet for consumption is an appalling process, I'm not will to toss the millions of years of human evolution that produced our meat-eating bodies. Veganism is technically more inhumane than the butchering process (since butchering is done to animals, not people), so both represent the extreme sides of the issue. Is artificial meat the common ground, the sensible solution? Who knows.

I guess it depends on the flavor.

[Ezerbio]

10:20 PM on 12/13/2008

sounds disgusting? Have you see how most of the food on the grocery store shelves is made?

[kansasmagic]

03:43 AM on 12/18/2008

How is veganism "inhumane"? It doesn't matter if "butchering is done to animals," because being 'humane' means expressing kindness - it's not the object of our actions, but our motives that determine whether than action is 'humane' or not. "Inhumane" is not the same thing as "inhuman."

[PhatP]

07:28 PM on 12/11/2008

Of course there is a very simple solution and PETA should be emphasizing it.

GO VEGAN...

Go Vegan and nobody gets hurt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-sRLD1dtBs&feature=related

[Myshkin57]

01:11 AM on 12/12/2008

But I think PETA realizes that we're not going to get everyone in the world to go Vegan and it would be a mistake to give up on alternatives that may be more likely to spare the needless deaths of animals.

[ddanimal]

03:06 AM on 12/15/2008

Veganism sucks. Its terribly unhealthy. It creates many nutrient deficiencies: vitamins A, K2, zinc, omega 3s, iodine, and B12, for starters

[uglicoyote]

02:20 PM on 12/11/2008

Isn't this SPAM?

[watchingthings]

11:03 PM on 12/10/2008

Shmeat. Is this a cancerous type of growth grown in vats and then ground up to replace hamburger and sausage meat?

[AnnArky]

10:53 PM on 12/10/2008

Meet "sheat."