Scientists in the Netherlands have landed on a potentially earth-shaking, life-saving discovery: real pig meat cultivated in a lab from a single muscle cell.

The research team, funded by a major sausage maker and the Dutch government, used cells from a live pig to grow pork muscle tissue in a Petri dish. After extracting cells called myoblasts from the muscle of a live pig, the scientists then incubated the myoblasts in a nutrient solution, which allowed the cells to multiply and create muscle.

The scientists point out that if they can perfect the process, this discovery could end world hunger. A single cell of muscle tissue is all you need to produce a virtually unlimited supply of pork. Lab meat also means a potentially radical reduction in methane and other greenhouse gasses, of which animal farms produce billions of tons each year. Even one prominent animal rights group is behind the effort: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has offered a $1 million prize for anyone who manages to produce a competitively priced test tube-spawned meat by 2012.

Scientists involved in the research predict a longer period of development, however, estimating that within five years they will have perfected the product. It's just as well: protocol disallows scientists from eating anything they produce in the lab, so no one knows if the test tube pork tastes anything like pork. The next phase of the project is to perfect its consistency and ensure that when they do have a taste test, it might as well be over a glass of shiraz. Barbecue competitions may be a ways off, but not as far as we think.

[Image: Sphere.com]