The Register – 28th December 2006:
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will declare today that meat from cloned animals is safe to eat.
A safety assessment released on Thursday is expected to approve the entry of products from genetically identical cattle and other livestock into the human food chain.
The FDA indicated which way the wind was blowing back in 2005. Now an article published by its scientists in the journal Theriogenology dated January 1 forms the scientific basis of the approval. Larisa Rudenko and John C Matheson wrote: “[The FDA] concludes that meat and milk from clones and their progeny is as safe to eat as corresponding products derived from animals produced using contemporary agricultural practices”.
The pair said no special labelling of cloned meat would be needed, which has outraged some consumer groups. AP reports Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Centre for Food Safety, said: “Consumers are going to be having a product that has potential safety issues and has a whole load of ethical issues tied to it, without any labelling.”
There has been a voluntary moratorium on cloned meat and milk in place for five years Stateside. Industrial scale ranchers have been keen to see the shackles off, as cloning would allow them to reproduce their tastiest, or biggest, or fastest growing individuals ad infinitum.
The announcement is unlikely to have an immediate impact down at WalMart though. Attrition rates for cloning are still far too high for it to be economical to clone meat on an industrial scale.
“The George Foreman Cloner: A perfect burger, every time… guaranteed!”
Since there’s no proof of “potential safety issues”, there’s no need for warning labels — other than satisfying paranoid Luddites. Prove otherwise and there might be a legitimate question.
Meat, it’s what to eat.
Have we learned nothing from Aqua Teen Hunger Force? You can only clone something so many times before it becomes evil.
It’s “as safe to eat as corresponding products derived from animals produced using contemporary agricultural practices.” Which is to say it probably isn’t very good for you at all, but you aren’t going to notice a difference.
My question: What exactly is a “progeny” of meat and milk anyway?!
Time to go on a vegan diet!
I’d feel more comfortable with labelling, at least to start. They don’t have to be called “warnings”, just a FYI. What’s wrong with a little caution? Besides, don’t I have a right to know, and make an informed decision? Who really knows what are the long term effects of eating meat from animals that were cloned, and re-cloned countless times?
I don’t want to be an unwitting test subject. Maybe my folks got it right. They became vegans about 10 years ago. I may have to follow suit.
I’ll have my re-steak medium-rare please.
Canadian beef feeders futures are up today.
I prefer DNA diversity…
Vegan sounds good but unfortunately meat is like a full-sized 4×4, freeways,beer and a large house. All absolute necessities of life.
#11, besides, you would look dumb when you go about claiming that killing animals is wrong while wearing synthetic clothing designed to look like those made from slaughtered animals.
Doesn’t cloning make it a manufactured product?
I wonder if they’ll taste test the cows they’re going to clone… Wouldn’t make much sense to clone a bad tasting cow….
I would like to ask….
WHY??
WHY clone a few animals…
You still need to raise them, feed them….
Its just stupid.
Well…being a vegan won’t help. A lot of fruits and veggies are cloned. Specifically bananas and potatoes.
As #10, I too prefer some diversity.
#15
I would imagine the answer is that it saves the cost of procreation. If you can clone cattle, you don’t need to keep bulls around.
From the article:
Attrition rates for cloning are still far too high for it to be economical to clone meat on an industrial scale.
Other things that are not economical for food produced on an industrial scale:
Healthiness
Tastiness
Goodness
Ethics
Frankly… I welcome cloning… In the long run, cloning may be able to offer solutions to the problems we face as a result of industrial agroculture today… But citizens need to leverage their power with the government to create effictive industry oversight… We know our safety, health, and well being are last on the list of corporate priorities.
This is why I’m a vagitarian.
hmm.. id try it. I mean they at least better choose a tasty cow but honestly there needs to be a label for gods sake…its my right to know.
Looks like ill stick with creekstone farms
Considering how “tasty” the overprocessed meat is, people won’t be able to tell the difference.
The only thing wrong with clowned beef is that it tastes funny.
#20
And spelling bee champ? 🙂
When I say industrial farming, I don’t just mean cows and chickens raised in factories.
Non meat items aren’t any better or safer.
#24 – you obviously missed the connection between the uh, “misspelling” and the name. Try to pay attention next time… 😉
#25 — Oh… Sorry… I wasn’t wearing my lowest common denominator joke glasses while I was reading that….
🙂
I think they should concentrate on cloning me instead. The world would be a far better place with 50,000,000 copies of me.
I really dont see anything wrong with this, science fiction has been harpin on cloned meat to feed people for decades now, and as soon as my local taco-beel offers it, i’m gonna go buy a few.
Since Fast food burgers are generally made w/ grade E meat, which allows for tumors and cysts, are we any worse off to have some cloned kobe beef?
28, yep…
but do you see a reason to spend THOUSANDS of dollars just to make an animal that in ANY condition, still takes FOOD, grains, and makes Meth out its butt, when all you have to do, is let mother nature DO IT for you.
#29
The simple answer is “Yes, if the marginal benefit of doing so exceeds the marginal cost of letting Mother Nature run its course.”