We've all heard about the featherless and beakless chickens grown for the fast food industry.  The argument for such developments is that it increases the efficiency of meat processing by doing away with plucking and debeaking the birds.  How about taking it a bit further?  Some have suggested that we now grow our meat in labs, the way we grow therapeutic tissue from stem cells.

Well, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has just offered a $1 million prize to anyone who develops a commercially viable "in vitro chicken-meat product." There is one condition which is the product can't contain or entail the use of "animal-derived products, except for starter cells obtained in the initial development stages."

So instead of growing a chicken embryo into a bird and cutting meat from it, you omit the bird part altogether and grow the meat directly from the embryo.

It's not that this can't be done as blood vessels, livers, bladders, and hearts have already been grown in labs using similar methods.  So why not use the technology to grow food as well?

PETA are adamantly opposed to the current trends in chicken farming where they are genetically altered and crammed into dark cages where they soak up antibiotics and lay their guts out for the duration of their lives.  Co-founder Ingrid Newkirk tells the New York Times that the prize offer caused "a near civil war in our office" and that "we will have members leave us over this."

So will this shut up the animal rights activists now that eating meat and eating animals seem to be diverging?  There are bound to be some purists who will still object.  One commentator has stated, "It won't walk or quack like a duck, so technically, it's not a duck. But if it tastes like duck, chews like duck, and comes from duck, it's duck." 

But what are the benefits?  Should we promote lab-grown meat so people can eat flesh without eating animals?  Lab meat could solve a lot of issues namely, no more cages, no more "chicken pills", no more slaughter and less environmental harm.  There is also the added benefit of being able to grow food in the event of food shortages.  If farmer Brown doesn't have any chickens on his farm, go to farmer Joe.  He can make some.

Check out PETA's press release.  If you can make a "product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh" then go ahead and enter.  The product has to satisfy a panel of 10 meat eaters sourced from a professional focus group services provider.

Also, check out the latest updates on "cultured meat" R&D.