PETA Statement re Cultured Meat’s FDA Milestone

For Immediate Release:
November 16, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to news that for the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given a company—UPSIDE Foods—the green light to sell cultured meat in the U.S.:

Years ago, PETA funded the very first foray into cultured meat research at two U.S. universities, offered a $1 million prize for the first laboratory that could create commercially viable lab-grown chicken meat, and even patented the findings of a scientist who eventually joined UPSIDE Foods before selling the patent to the startup at a very low cost, so we’re over the moon to see “slaughter-less meat” becoming a reality. But as billions of animals are still killed every year for food, animal agriculture is fueling the climate catastrophe, and delicious vegan meats are already widely available, there’s no reason to wait on government greenlights; everyone can and should go vegan now.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.