Cambridge Student Wins PETA’s ‘Future Without Speciesism’ Cash Award

Posted by Calvin on December 10, 2024

We’re amped to announce PETA’s first-ever Future Without Speciesism Cash Award winner: Callan MacDonald, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, has won a $2,500 award from PETA for his idea that could revolutionize cultivated meat and save billions of animals. 🎉

Cultivated meat is real animal flesh produced without the breeding and slaughtering of billions of animals. It’s still a developing science, but several companies have made cultivated meat in the lab by growing cells from animals. Market researchers predict the global cultivated meat industry could be worth nearly $14 billion by 2043. 😲

Here’s the prob—companies have figured out how to “grow” meat from primary cells, but they’re super-secretive about which cells work best. Enter Callan MacDonald—he’s assembling a non-profit “cell bank” named AgriCell that will save the best primary cells for meat cultivation. That means producers will have access to the best cells for making cultivated meat instead of dooming animals to suffer while entrepreneurs discover and re-discover the most valuable primary cells.

PETA has hyped cultivated meat for a long time because we believe it’s the first step toward making eco-friendly, humanely produced real meat for folks who insist on eating animal flesh. Exciting developments like this one from Callan are great reminders that the future of food is compassionate to animals and the planet. 🐮🌎❤️

A Future Without Speciesism Is Inevitable

PETA knows that young advocates like Callan are motivated to help save animals from exploitation. That’s why any student with a well-developed, game-changing idea ready to patent and be turned into a specific action plan or design to replace animal use can apply for our Future Without Speciesism Award.

If you or someone you know has the vision and know-how to take an idea like this to the next level, find out more about our ongoing Future Without Speciesism Cash Award below!