Test Tube Steaks by Jeffrey Winters
Here's a slightly more detailed look at the $1,000,000 prize PETA put forth for feasible, edible, lab-engineered meat. As the New York Times article on the subject showed (see previous posts), it's not that much money and it's not about the money. The projects are being privately funded in the millions of dollars already, and the men who work on it, care more about the science. So what does that lead to?
This article from Me Magazine (Mechanical Engineering) talks briefly about other such rewards to spark competition. The competition that sent the first privately funded/built manned-craft into space is one example. One I might throw out there that's rather similar in idea is Bruce Willis's $1,000,000 for the Osama Bin Laden. It's not about the money, it's about sparking a flame to get the job done. What PETA is doing with this contest is getting this technology into the media, trying to make the idea less taboo, and attempting to expedite the meat.
The story here give a basis for timelines and some of the money involved.
Some numbers:
$200 billion/year to process 9 billion animals.
Cost of meat: $2.30/lb of factory engineered meat as a low estimate to $10000/pound.
Possible timeline to get it to industrial scale: $100,000,000 over 10 years, at least.
Just based off of what's been written, it doesn't seem like PETA will get the guilt free meat it wants by 2012. One thing they neglected to mention is that FDA testing on all of this will take a long time. Let's hope the wait is worth while.
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