Last week PETA announced they would offer a $1 million prize for the first person or team who could produce test-tube meat in "commercially viable quantities" by 2012. Now the gloves are coming off, as some claim the initiative is one big PR stunt by the organization. Sure PETA may genuinely believe that in vitro meat removes the cruelty factor from meat consumption and therefore the concept should be pursued at all costs (or $1 million at the very least), but do they honestly expect the prize money will act as an incentive for researchers?

There are several factors that point to this simply being a way for PETA to grab some headlines. For one thing, a cash prize is supposed to act as incentive to encourage research that may not offer financial compensation. A prize may also be offered for a breakthrough that won't provide an immediate commercial application, but could eventually be worth a lot of money when that does happen.

The initiative by PETA unfortunately doesn't offer any of those things. To successfully be awarded the prize money, the in vitro meat must be sold on store shelves for months, meet a minimum sales amount and be sold at a price that is comparable to real meat. Feasibly a researcher could develop test-tube meat that looks and tastes like the genuine version of the meat and be able to offer it a comparable price, but still lose out on the cash if the product isn't completely set to make a profit. And let's be honest, at that point, whoever has come up with the miracle meat is probably going to gain some financial reward from their breakthrough that would make PETA's $1 million look like pocket change.

When you also consider the inevitable length process to have fake meat approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there's a fairly likely chance that even if you had already successfully developed the meat, it would be years before you maneuvered the red tape necessary to actually get the product on store shelves.

Other contests currently running that reward scientific breakthroughs do not have the same stringent guidelines as the PETA initiative. In fact, most will award the money based on successful development of a product without the inventor having to jump through the hoops of actually making it a success on the market first. To sum it up perfectly:

The PETA prize may turn out to be a minor boon for lab-meat research, insofar as it generates publicity for the project. (When everyone starts talking about artificial chicken, private investors will take notice.) But it's hard to imagine that the $1 million will itself provide much incentive. As a science prize, it just feels a little fake.

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