PETA is ecstatic to announce our first-ever Future Without Speciesism Cash Award winner for an idea that could very well revolutionize the budding cultivated meat industry, saving billions of animals.
Cultivated meat is real animal flesh produced without breeding and slaughtering billions of animals. While it’s still a developing science, several companies have already successfully made cultivated meat in the laboratory by growing cells from animals. However, it won’t be “developing” for long—market researchers predict that the global cultivated meat industry could be worth nearly $14 billion by 2043.
But this still relatively new industry suffers from a lack of standardization. Primary cells—the ones used to start the growing process—can vary widely. How efficiently the cells reproduce, as well as taste, flavor, and texture, are all influenced by where researchers source these primary cells. While companies have figured out how to “grow” meat from primary cells, keeping trade secrets about which cells work best dooms more animals to suffer while entrepreneurs discover and re-discover the most useful types of cells.
To push back against this concerning trend, Callan MacDonald, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, has taken the initiative to assemble a “cell bank” named AgriCell—receiving a $2,500 award from PETA to support his work. This first-of-its-kind cell bank will archive and preserve the most advanced primary cells for meat cultivation. Standardizing primary cells in this bank will give producers access to a wider genetic pool shown to work best for cultivated meat production and eliminate the need for cultivated meat developers to kill animals in a search for valuable primary cells.
Working as a nonprofit, Callan’s organization intends to acquire and then supply relevant primary cells to academic and private labs. Cell samples would be genetically identical and capable of infinite replication.
PETA has long been an advocate of cultivated meat, because we believe it’s the first important step toward realizing the dream of one day putting environmentally sound, humanely produced real meat into the hands and mouths of people who insist on eating animal flesh. Exciting developments like this one from Callan remind everyone of an inevitable global shift in conscientious eating.
A Future Without Speciesism Is Inevitable
Today’s compassionate, bright young minds continue to save living, feeling individuals from being treated as property, objects, or even ingredients. Our Future Without Speciesism award is open to any student with a fully developed, game-changing idea that can replace animal exploitation in our world.
Do you or someone you know have the vision and expertise to take an incredible animal-friendly project to the next level? Find out more about our ongoing award below!
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