Baha’i Perspectives

Murderless Meat for a Million Dollars

nadim May 13th, 2008

This one caught my attention!

fake meat

According to this Science Blog article, PETA is offering a US$1 million reward to the first scientist to produce, and bring to market, artificial meat manufactured in the laboratory. Promising first steps have already been made using animal stem cells and in-vitro methods but there is still a way to go. Interested? To win you must achieve both of the following:

Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states in the United States.

I’m pretty skeptical about the first point, since the taste of meat depends to some degree on the diet of the animal. And, although I would love to be proven wrong, humans tend to be quite adept at distinguishing the real from the processed.

Then again, do we actually know what real chicken tastes like these days? With all the hormones being pumped into chicken, not only is it beginning to taste like processed fish, but the moral and ethical implications of “keeping up with demand” are being questioned more than ever by groups such as PETA.

Truly, the killing of animals and the eating of their meat is somewhat contrary to pity and compassion, and if one can content oneself with cereals, fruit, oil and nuts, such as pistachios, almonds and so on, it would undoubtedly be better and more pleasing.

(From a Tablet of Abdu’l-Baha, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 462)

Perhaps a breakthrough in producing artificial meat will resolve the ethical dilemma of meat consumption, leaving us free to address the next challenge, that of leading strong and healthy lives without the need for meat.

Considered from another angle: if there is a breakthrough and the solution is made affordable enough, it may even help to control those soaring food prices…