The X Prize Foundation is a non-profit institute that awards rather large prizes to non-governmental organisations who achieve a number of milestones, classed as beneficial to mankind. The most famous of these was the Ansari X Prize awarded to the first NGO to send a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice in two weeks – this was eventually won by the Tier One project, and they were awarded with the $10,000,000 prize in 2004.
Today it appears that everyone’s favourite animal rights group, PETA, is getting in on the action too; they have offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first organisation to create and market in-vitro chicken meat within the next four years. As El Reg puts it:
PETA announced today it will offer $1m to an organization that can successfully create and market “in vitro meat,” i.e. muscle tissue grown without the pesky animal attached.
To collect PETA’s $1m carrot, scientists must develop a commercially marketable in vitro meat in just four years. At least they’re first setting the bar down to creating a chicken flesh substitute, which reportedly tastes like every non-traditional animal in the known universe.
This brings to mind my favourite Threadless t-shirt… Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder.