PETA Statement re USDA Green-Lights Lab-Grown Meat

For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow companies 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 “slaughterless meat” becoming a reality. But since billions of animals are still being 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 approval—everyone can and should go vegan now.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.