Thursday, March 24, 2011

Would You Rather???


Would you rather eat meat from a cloned animal or an animal born au natural?  Would you eat meat from an offspring of a cloned animal or the offspring of an animal born the way nature intended?  Would you rather drink milk from cloned animals or milk from a cow that was born from a dam (mother cow) and a sire (father cow)?

Did you even know that cloned meat may be on our plates and in our cups already or at least very soon?

In fact there have already been government hearings in California on the issue.  In the documentary Food Inc., the hearing for Senate Bill 63 documented a lobbyist from the California Farm Bureau saying she was concerned about SB 63 which required the labeling of cloned meat.  She said that labeling creates unnecessary fear in the consumers mind before the industry has the opportunity to educate the consumers about why they want to use the technology and the benefits of the technology. The California Farm Bureau does not feel that consumers just having a cloned meat label would be helpful to us.

We must be too stupid to make decisions on our own.  We need the government and the California Farm Bureau to protect us from ourselves.  From our FEAR!!!  Or maybe our stupidity.

What I think she meant was that the cloned meat label wouldn't be helpful to the California Farm Bureau.  I think she meant to say, "Dear Mr. Senator, We know that meat with a 'cloned' label would probably fail in a free market.  So we are encouraging you to say that our product is safe (even though we have no idea if it actually is safe) and let us hide the truth from the consuming public.  We need government interference in the free market to succeed.  We are counting on you and you can count on us for a big donation in your next campaign.  Thank you very much and we'll get a check in the mail."

The Senate Bill 63 passed the California legislature and the labeling of cloned meat was on its way to becoming law but was vetoed by the Terminator Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

So I am wondering...would you rather?   Before you answer I'll leave you with this last thought.

Dolly was the first animal ever cloned in 1996.  She lived 6 years even though the normal lifespan of a sheep is 12 years.  The cell that was used to clone her came from a 6 year old sheep.  Hummmmm.

"Dolly the sheep, for example, developed premature arthritis and lung disease that led her creators to euthanize her after just six years--roughly half the lifespan of a normal sheep.

"The developmental and genetic abnormalities that tend to characterize cloned animals and their offspring raise concerns about the use of cloning technology in food production. Dolly's creator, Ian Wilmut, has stated that small imbalances in a clone's protein, hormone, or fat levels could affect the safety and quality of its milk or meat."  Source  (The entire source article is very interesting and informative!)

We have no need to worry if cloned animals or their offspring hit our supermarket shelves, though.  The FDA says cloned meat is safe.  I feel so reassured.

Oh, and the FDA says there may already be meat from offspring of cloned animals and milk from cloned animals on the market.  It is just to difficult for them to monitor.  That's our government.

3 comments:

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