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182 Comments
- aahpandasrun, on 10/11/2007, -4/+39There's a lot of genetic engineering going on with our food already. It's weird when you think about it, but it's pretty safe. Just think of this as eating a bunch of identical twins.
- DerProfi, on 10/11/2007, -3/+24I want my Soylent Chalupa!
- geminitojanus, on 10/11/2007, -4/+24Imaging finding that perfect, succulent, delicious steak, normally reserved to only high rollers in casinos or vice presidential dinner parties...
...now imagine that steak is available to everyone for pennies on the dollar. Cloning and selective breeding are techniques we can use to bulk up not only the quantity, but the quality of our food. We're still raising the animals naturally, we're still caring for them the same way, only we can assure that the less tasty cows take a back seat to the delicious cows. In reality, clones have no real significant advantage except that of foresight (you know that animal will be tasty if the first one was). But everyone's afraid of cloning, and this is probably a good way to put some of those fears to rest. - ambrosious, on 10/11/2007, -4/+17This is a terrible idea... narrowing the diversity of the gene pool of our cattle even further is a recipe for disaster.
- mortigon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12I would clone my girlfriend, then have a threesome
- silencerider151, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15I don't know, I like the new experience with each cow I eat.
- dWhisper, on 10/11/2007, -6/+18Sigh, another thing for whackjobs to stand outside of supermarkets and complain about, spreading around misinformation, assumptions, and stupidity.
- secretwhistle, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11Well, when they finally get around to humans I guess you could just clone one for spare parts. Or for in-flight meals over the Andes.
- Unclebob1992, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9When I read the title, I was like 'Wtf? I don't want to eat myself.". Anyone else think that?
- pintomp3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7if you're a girl, some people would pay to see that.
- Unremarkable, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Source? Seems to me that even if that were to initial cost of cloning, we would quickly find a cheaper way to do it.
- CornStarch, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Quote:"Don't clones degrade with every generation?"
Is it sad that I remember what Star Trek that ridiculously ignorant assumption is from? - nepawoods, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8what about people who want to avoid meat from brown cows? should beef be labeled with the color of the cow so people can choose to avoid them?
- kunfu, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I couldn't agree more, it is as safe as any other method. Lets also keep in mind that nearly all the food we eat today (grains especially) is the result of genetic engineering that has been going on for 1,000's of years. Selective breed in a method of genetic engineering that are ancestors used the methods we have today just allow this process to be accelerated. With the proper safe guards (FDA) there should be absolutely no problem.
- biggiantmat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5This is rubbish! eating GM food has no potential to turn your genes on and off, let alone cloned food! When you eat something you digest it! You break it down into amino acids, fatty acids, glucose etc. Genes are just sections of DNA for coding specific proteins. When you eat DNA you break it down into amino acids, and any gene is destroyed. For example, if i ate a fish i wouldn't grow gills. If i ate a cow with a fish gene spliced into it, i still wouldn't grow gills, and so on. Also cloned animals are genetically identical to the original animals - safe.
- Brss45, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I don't care either way as long as they LABEL IT. If people want it, they can have it. I just want a choice so I can make the decision to eat it or not. I read an article the other day where the companies wanting to do this also want to not have to label the stuff as cloned product.
- Doghound, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Waiter, I'll have whatever he's smoking, please.
- eggo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5The problem is not the lack of food, but distributing that food to those who need it. Nice try tugging the heart strings though...
- SkippyDoorknob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Twin cows are clones - would you not eat a twin cow?
- noblepaladin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4The OP is correct in that clones do "degrade" with every generation. Each time cells split, possible errors occur in the DNA strand. Also the telomeres (long strand of "useless" padding at the end of DNA strands) shortens with each generation that cells split. This is why Dolly the sheep died young and suffered diseases that normally occur in elderly sheep (arthritis, etc). When all the padding is gone, the actual DNA gets damaged and cells can't regrow properly. Even though Dolly was young, her DNA was "old" (short telomeres) so she essentially died of "old age".
However, this is probably not that big of a problem. We won't take A to make B, then B to make C, then C to make D... That would lead to degradation of the DNA. We just get very good candidate DNA for a young animal and keep making clones from that strand. Don't use the DNA from the clones, but only from the original. That way each clone is only "second" generation. The benefit above raising naturally is that we can select the absolute best animal or crop out of millions and clone it. That way the food quality is much better and cheaper. - judbeasley, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Agreed. Just like everything else. If it became popular it would then be a competition and prices would go down. "Hey this steak tasted familiar" "Yup, we had it's clone 4 months ago" "Mmmmmm clone T-bone"
- laserjobs, on 10/11/2007, -7/+11Great, another way to monopolize on the food industry. Monsanto has aready set up a GMO-Roundup loop for corn and is suing small farmers if seeds blow into their field for patent infringement. Wonder way ethanol was the fuel of choice promoted by Bush? Look no further than Monsanto GMO corn. With cloning it opens up another patentable food source.
- Muyoso, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5We could try and send the meat to third world countries, but greenpeace would interfere and lead to the death of millions.
http://www.connectotel.com/gmfood/wt310802.txt - pintomp3, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5the biggest problem with cloning (on a large scale) is reducing diversity in a species. a disease that normally might effect only a part of the population could wipe out all of it. genetic diversity is a good thing.
- av4rice, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Too bad cloning is about making genetic copies and NOT about quickly growing animals or making many at once. It's no faster than growing cows/pigs/etc through in vitro fertilization (which is only different in that they are genetically dissimilar, as naturally-conceived animals are)
- eggo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Yes, and identical twins are not people.
- knightblade2oo4, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4do you see how this can affect world hunger? this could mean great things... cheaper food and more of it means that it will not be extremely expensive to export to poorer countries.
- Hananda, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Let's take, say, Africa as an example. At current rates of production, the continent should be a net exporter of foodstuffs, and yet, famine remains an issue.
My understanding of the issue is not the expense of the food produced, but rather the logistical mess that is resultant from the incompetent bureaucracies of ex-warlords managing such large portions of the continent for such long periods of time.
I do agree, though, that cloning could introduce otherwise too expensive foods into diets that are based on wheat and not much else, which would do a lot for the malnutrition problem. - InfiniteNothing, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You act as if today's cow evolution is natural.
- eggo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It takes more time to produce a clone than a normal animal, and most of them die in vitro. How would this solve anything?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Why are you guys digging slayerab down: didn't you know that's true? It's estimated the world now produces 1 & 1/2 times as much as is needed. It's the distribution of it that is faulty.
- boyasunder, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3This is true, but really hard for a lot of folks. Local food isn't available everywhere, especially at price points people can afford.
- eggo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4The problem with cloned food is, when you homogenize the genes of a population (which would result from widespread cloning) that population becomes less resistant to disease. The story last year about the banana crops being destroyed by disease were a direct result of them all being genetically identical--no chance for naturally resistant plants to supplant the more susceptible ones.
What is the point anyway? Having a bull ***** a cow is much cheaper and has a much better success rate than trying to clone one "perfect" animal. I just don't see where the potential benefit is... anyone? - Asianwaste, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I would sooo eat a cloned mammoth. Oh oh oh also live my life long dream to eat a brontosaurus burger. Like the Flintstones. Just don't eat them on drive-thru. They'll tip over your car.
- cloudyprison, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Soylent black and white are made out of Cows!
- chrisinsocalif, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3You are thinking of photocopies.
- knightblade2oo4, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5http://antoni.norman.googlepages.com/j_022.jpg
way too much food right? - jeehalte, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4WTF, we have enough food, there are just too many fat ***** eating it all.
- shieldwolf, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3People who are concerned about genetic engineering/hormones/ or cloning in our food aren't whack jobs - those would be the people who accept drastically modifying the diet we have subsisted on for thousands of years without much of a debate.
Girls are hitting puberty earlier in the US - cows are injected with hormones to produce more milk - coincidence, I don't know but I think we need a HELL of a lot more studies on cloning before we accept this. - fantasticFlan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Yeah, you could clone cattle that are immune to today's diseases, but you can't stop today's diseases from evolving into tomorrow's diseases.
- jmas9, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I agree with this. If I can know for certain that my meat was not cloned, then whatever.
- kRabbit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Wow, everyone here is talking about cloning cows. The first thing that popped into my mind was Scarlett Johansson from The Island. I'd be more than happy to clone and eat her.
- jaycliche, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Cause gentics hates diversity. (sarcasm)
- fantasticFlan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"Genetic modification" refers to artificial manipulation of genes outside the natural process of evolution. Not saying there's anything wrong with it, but you're misusing terms and not making a point.
- CeeJayDK, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Well .. yes.
As much as I like children , I couldn't eat a whole one. - Doghound, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Nice reference to two movies :)
- mortigon, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I for one welcome our new gigantic delicious hamburger overlords
- sanemadman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Soylent Green is made out of people!!
Seriously - Not that I'm a veggie head, 'cus I loves me some hamburgers, but I can picture the inhumanity of cloned animals.
"Why are you growing the cow without legs?!?"
"What? They're just clones, they have no soul...."
"But, can't they feel?" - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I honestly don't see the reason for cloning animals? The excuse of feeding the world is mum, as we already have enough food, it's that no one wants to pay the distribution costs of flying it to needed areas. So then for what?
A more efficient meat product, well only if we pump it full of third party hormones and drugs. Your dinner tonight is brought to you by Pfizer. No thanks.
They can clone all they bloody well want, there just better be clearly marked packaging telling me it's cloned. This way I can make my own assertions as to the moral, bio-ethnic and external costs to eating such a product. - dagnome1984, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Ah the day when I can produce at steak with a bag of sucrose.
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