it's not just you; I just can't figure out why people are weirded out by this. It's not like the cattle industry hasn't been adding synthetic BGH (that's exactly like the kind produced by cattle and has little effect on the beef/milk product) for years. Some people still complain about that, though.
We heard (pun?) the same complaints when farms started artificially impregnating animals, so this doesn't surprise me. The noise will die down eventually.
I don't know... I guess my weirded-outness stems from the fact that I've been eating Farmers Market (i.e. locally raised) beef, chicken, and lamb for the last few years and can't imagine ever going back to mass-produced meat. Seriously, it may be twice as expensive, but the taste is simply much better.
it's simple, really...lhianaJanuary 16 2008, 00:32:52 UTC
No, it doesn't. Bread is a tricky tricky issue with me - just because it's local doesn't mean they didn't buy their flour at Wal*Mart, a business I do not support. But in most cases these small-scale beef/poultry operations don't even have the budget to deal with such technology. More than just that, there are places that don't WANT to use it, as is the case with most New Mexico ranches and farms. I have visited two of the four places that sell beef at the Market. Unless they're hiding some sort of lab somewhere on the premises, I can assure you there are no clones on those sites
( ... )
I gotta say I more or less agree with ssiomon on this. Cloned animals are still way more expensive than breeding them the "normal" way. Likely using them as quick ways to get breeding stock is more likely than eating them in the near future. (Can you see the "Cattle Ranch in a Box Starter Set"?) In reality, I think the process they're using now is less like "cloning" and more like "twinning". I haven't been following the exact science of cloning so much lately though, so I may be wrong.
This is an entirely different story however. (Growing meat in a petri dish). Not sure on safety and all that...but just seems a bit wrong.
Re: Cloned MeatssimonJanuary 28 2008, 07:45:13 UTC
They already grow skin grafts in petri dish (actually in a flask, but whatever; petri dishes are very small) as well as transplant organs... sort of and that's not even counting the inkjet stuff. So why would you let them grow you new skin or a new kidney; but not dinner?
The biggest difficulty with cloning is that when you clone an organism you clone it at the moment in time of collection. If you clone a 3 year old pig, when it starts growing in vivo; it's effectively already 3 years old. So the animal doesn't live as long if you collect late in life; but if you collected from a newborn or even earlier, you can avoid some of those problems. They don't have the magical 'accelerated growth' from sci fi movies; accelerated growth already has a name; cancer.
And besides; if they can grow it in a vat we can finally find out what spotted owl tastes like! :)
Re: Cloned MeatssimonJanuary 30 2008, 05:50:42 UTC
If you use the same logic for either question, you should arrive at the same answer. What criteria are you using that makes the two different? If it is 'safe' enough to save your life, how is it not 'safe' to eat?
Comments 36
We heard (pun?) the same complaints when farms started artificially impregnating animals, so this doesn't surprise me. The noise will die down eventually.
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Plus you don't have the steakhouses/restaurants snapping up the good stuff.
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This is an entirely different story however. (Growing meat in a petri dish). Not sure on safety and all that...but just seems a bit wrong.
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The biggest difficulty with cloning is that when you clone an organism you clone it at the moment in time of collection. If you clone a 3 year old pig, when it starts growing in vivo; it's effectively already 3 years old. So the animal doesn't live as long if you collect late in life; but if you collected from a newborn or even earlier, you can avoid some of those problems. They don't have the magical 'accelerated growth' from sci fi movies; accelerated growth already has a name; cancer.
And besides; if they can grow it in a vat we can finally find out what spotted owl tastes like! :)
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