At the moment, food produced from cloned animals is not approved for sale to consumers, but the FDA said this week that they were "moving closer to approving meat and milk from cloned animals." It could happen as early as next year.
Understandably, some people are concerned about this. 60% of Americans say that they are "uncomfortable" with the idea of eating such animals. Most feel that any products resulting from a cloned animal should be clearly marked so that consumers have a choice about what they're eating - despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has concluded there is no more danger in eating meat or other products from cloned animals than there is from conventional animals. There are no more than 2,000 or so cloned animals in the US for now, and the FDA has asked producers to voluntarily keep such products out of the production lines.
One question that has been raised is why farmers or ranchers would want cloned cattle (or other animals) in the first place, since it would cost just as much to upkeep them as natural animals. The other big question is why consumers would want cloned food over non-cloned food. There is said to be little difference between natural and non-natural meat and dairy, and if consumers can't tell the difference, why would they pay for it?
10-19-2006 @3:54PM geekpdx said... Why would a farmer want to raise cloned animals? You've got to be kidding!
Right now, selling the semen of a productive and prize-winning animals is BIG business. People make huge amounts of money selling "genetic material" to farmers trying to recreate all the characteristics of that prized bull/cow/pig/sheep/mink/chicken/rabbit etc. Selling them a clone instead of semen or eggs is just the next step. (Not that I'm a fan of the idea).
Additionally, it's not a stretch for some people to think that it's easier and more efficient to raise livestock that do not have a hereditary proclivity toward one disease/condition or another.
Much more insidiously, this provides an opportunity for a real nasty test of our intellectual property and copyright protections. Just like Monsanto sues farmers into oblivion if their crops have crossbread with those grown from patented Monsanto seed in a neighboring field, think of the advantage that the big compnaies will have when you have to go to them for "new" cows, because your cheaply acquired clones have been made sterile on purpose, simply to control the supply chain.
Of course, a monoculture is never healthy, and cloning takes selective breeding a bit too far in my opinion, but it's foolsih to think that big industrial farms wouldn't jump at the chance to produce meat or eggs for just a little bit less than they do now.
Why will people buy it? Because it will be endlessly marketed as harmless and will probably sell for less than "regular" meet, and most certainly less than free range/vegetarion fed/organic meats.
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10-19-2006 @4:24PM Karen said... I don't understand the last comment. Free range/vegetarian fed/organic has nothing to do with whether or not the animal came from a test tube or an ovary. You can have a free range, veggie-fed cloned cow just as easily as you can have a free range, veggie-fed birthed cow.
I just don't get the fuss. Who really cares? If there's no physical difference in the meat, then what's the deal?
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10-19-2006 @4:46PM MJ said... Lord help us.I may have already who would tell me??
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10-19-2006 @4:54PM Shad Genki said... Look, we all know that cloned animals or humans won't have souls. So, why would we treat them the same as non-cloned animals? Farmers could maintain them in the cheapest manner possible, and pass the savings onto me, the consumer! Also, we should be able to accelerate growth in clones pretty soon, which means less time for more meat to get on the market for less money. We can't lose!!
/joke
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10-19-2006 @4:56PM Rick Dobbs said... Well, it's cloned, so I'm sure it tastes EXACTLY the same as the original. Why not eat it?
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10-19-2006 @11:06PM Spoonman said... The reasons for cloned cows is better consistency. Let's say you've got a cow, Bessie, who consistently produces more milk than all the other cows in your stable. The current method is to breed Bessie and hope that her offspring will produce as much milk as her. The same holds true for "meat cows". Some will bulk up and produce more and better quality meat. But unfortunately by the time you find out the quality of their meat, it's too late to reproduce them. Cloning allows us to select the best-producing animals and keep using them forever. Farmers costs go DOWN because they don't have to pay stud fees and can have maximum output with minimal animals or significantly increase their output with the same amount of animals.
Now, as to the question of if I'd eat cloned food: absolutely, it would be stupid to use "cloned" as a basis for turning down meat. Cloning (in the most simplistic laymen's terms) means they took the genetic material from one cow and put it into a zygote from another cow and allowed the animal's growth to continue as normal. Aside from sticking a straw in each cell and moving material around, there's no voodoo here. Once the genetic material's been implated, the new zygote is the same as any other normal zygote.
Meat is meat, no matter how it's conceived. You eat meat that's been artificially inseminated, so why not one in which the zygote was artificially inseminated? :) I guess the real question is: what is people's objections? Personally, I'd love to hear them because I can't even begin to comprehend what people are so upset about!
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10-19-2006 @5:21PM barrett said... I'm guessing cloned burritos would repeat on you.
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10-19-2006 @5:56PM Flanged said... When scientists will make clear with cloning processes and there won't be any mutations... Only then I will eat cloned products. Now I'm afraid
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10-19-2006 @6:08PM james b said... I say let some early adopters eat them up for a few years, then if they don't grow a third eye, I'll try it. I've eaten frogs, gators, snails, buffalo, elk, antelope , and crawfish . . . a cloned cow isn't really a stretch. But hey, if you got the best tasting piggy or cow there ever was, why not make multiples and cook-em-up? I could see this becoming a botique market for unique flavor high end meats that are consistent over time.
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10-19-2006 @6:49PM whoa said... If it was something like Cloned Bengali Tiger Meat or Cloned Penguin Soup, or even some Cloned Dolphin Sandwiches... maybe, just for the taste. As for cloned cow, i don't see here (in my country) any regulations against it so we may be as well eating them without knowing >.o
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10-19-2006 @8:03PM James said... I would like a cloned Tyranasaurus Rex steak medium-rare!
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11-04-2006 @2:57PM jon said... The real issue is that if cloned cows became the standard then they would all be genetically the same, with the same strengths and weaknesses. That means a single pathogen could kill off the whole stock. With a diverse breeding stock one disease killing off all of the cattle would be unlikely. Thus securing beef and milk for the future.
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10-19-2006 @11:24PM Hilary said... Remember the potato famine? Genetic diversity is a good thing. A little vareity never hurt anybody, in fact I have heard about it being the spice of life.
Shrinking the gene pool in the name of big science and big agriculture is not good for our palates or for the genetic safety of our future lifestock.
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10-20-2006 @12:35AM whoa said... yea ok... i see what you mean... let them clone that which we are going to eat and then let the originals reproduce...
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10-20-2006 @1:44AM Not Happy said... Whilst I don't mind the idea of eating a clone I'm more worried about it's future impact. Prize winning cloned Cow meat will do well because we will want the best... if you believe eating a COPYclone is better.. then go ahead. I prefer the one of a kind.
Funny to think of that.. we are in luxury right now.
I'll prefer the statement of "I had an awesome steak" vs "Those Coca Cola Steaks are ok hey?" hmm good conversation.
The future..Cloned Cows won't reproduce..(silly if they allowed that) to maintain control and thus taking away the most basic farming element needed.
Natural Cows will be pushed out and eventually Big Corps will not only run our foods but control the reproduction rates of our farming livestocks.
I choose Natural... it's worked for the last ~3000 yrs and no-one controls it. Last thing.. The technology is there and should be used to prevent extinction and other functions.. it's just the plain tech for money money money story... Boring..
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10-20-2006 @4:36AM Holly Gunning said... No cloned meat thank you. I don't want my foodstuffs genetics controlled by a couple of bio engineering companies! In anycase I thought they were having trouble with the cloning technology, didn't the offspring have a habit of dying young or something? Wasn't that the reason Dolly the sheep wasn't repeated?
And even if you Americans do insist on consuming these technologies, you can be pretty sure that the European consumer is going to be a lot more resistant.
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10-20-2006 @8:37AM Alex said... Holly, your comment made me laugh.
"I don't want my foodstuffs genetics controlled by a couple of bioengineering companies!"
What do you think they do now? All the hormones and chemicals used in raising animals and produce are already so toxic for our bodies, why not throw some cloned genes in there too? What different would it really make?
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10-20-2006 @9:29AM PghEats said... Good lord, people, do you think this is mystical stuff? Clones are just *twins*. Would you eat the beef from a cow that was a twin of another cow?
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10-20-2006 @10:20AM James said... PghEats you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
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10-20-2006 @11:40AM Villarreal said... James, You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, same thing for Holly something the european crazy lady who thinks that the genes from a food product can alter our gene pool.
Modifying the genes of a product won't harm us, that'll never ever ever happen, it's just not possible. Lots of food we're eating right know are GMO and we don't even know, and example is the corn, do you think that regular corn grows as firm, yellow and tender as we see it in stores? A big part of it is GMO and i can assure that because of the great differences between mexican corn and american corn, and no, soil and fertilization does not affect as that much to the final product. Have that GMO corn made us any harm? no, and they won't because that's not the way it works. Genes from something can't just pass from an organism to another that way, what Holly and some others are saying is that the genes from a cloned cow can alter our dna? then why the genes of a regular cow woulndn't alter them? because it is not possible!, it can't happen and the fact that people does not know about genetics is the cause of this massive fear to something that as Spoonman explained is just a simple transfer that does not affect the final result.
Please people, read before talking, look up and find a trustful source where you can rely on. Don't fear GMO or biotechnology, they are good.
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