F.D.A. Says Cloned Animals Safe to Eat

[kizzume]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/business...&ei=5087%0A (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/business/15cnd-clone.html?em&ex=1200546000&en=fd2c8ce3ecc662cc&ei=5087%0A)

After years of debate, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday declared that food from cloned animals and their progeny is safe, removing the last government hurdle before meat and milk derived from copies of prize dairy cows and superior hogs can be sold at grocery stores.

The decision comes more than four years after the agency tentatively declared that food from cloned animals was safe, only to face a backlash from consumer groups and some scientists who said the science supporting the decision was shaky.

On Tuesday, the F.D.A. declared that further studies had confirmed its earlier decision. Extensive measurement of nutrients in the meat and milk of clones found no cause for alarm, the agency said.

I've never had a problem with the idea of this. Some people do, and I don't really understand it. Chemicals are one thing, antibiotics are one thing, hormones are one thing, pesticides are one thing, but this--this is NOTHING. I really don't see how ANY harm could come out of eating cloned animals. It just doesn't make sense to me--I don't know the other side to this.

What do you think?

[kizzume]

I found this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22669943/

So is the debate over the use of cloned animals for food now over? Hardly.

We don’t chose what we eat based on science. If we did, we would not be in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

Food is about emotion. Food producers, manufacturers and sellers know that very well. That is why cookies are sold by elves, biscuits by a doughboy and oatmeal by an 18th century Quaker.

The food industry is not going to like the emotions surrounding cloning.

A survey conducted last year by the International Food Information Council found that only 22 percent of U.S. consumers had a favorable view of animal cloning. The proportion of people who said they would eat cloned animals if it were approved by the FDA rose to 46 percent. Still, not a number likely to bring a smile at Hormel, Jimmy Dean, Dannon, Kraft, Von’s, Giant or Nestle.

What is it based off? Is it a religious thing? "People shouldn't be playing God"?

What is it?

the article goes on to say:

Cloning has gotten a bad rap in American society. It is the best means for scaring the daylights out of the American public short of making a movie or TV show about terrorism. We all know what clones do — at least on the big screen. They are monsters, fiends, reincarnated zombies, drones. Eat them? Hell you would not even want one standing in a field near you. No wonder why your poor deli manager is tied up in knots trying to figure out what to say when the day comes when customers ask if any of the products for sale are made from clones.

All of this fear-mongering about clones has made Americans forget that cloning is nothing more than artificially creating twins. It has made us forget that every drop of wine we drink comes from cloned grapes. It has made us ignore the fact that if you want to worry about what you are eating, you'd be better off wondering if the FDA has enough inspectors at meat plants looking for salmonella and E. coli.

I'm liking a lot of this article. :)

Sneaking products from clones into the food supply will not work. Plenty of food suppliers will make sure there’s lots of clone-free food to appeal to the 50 percent of the public suspicious of it.

That's just so crazy! I just don't get it. It seems that there are some people who will eat SPAM with glee but they won't touch cloned-animal meat.

[Locke]

The article seems to explain it well enough. Cloning, as with all relatively new techonologies are ideas, has been greeted with hesitance. Culturally, we have transformed it into a phenomenon up there with zombies and vampires, as the article elucidated. The hesitance is also partly on the part of the manufacturers, who might see their profits evaporate if they introduce cloned food.
I see your point, but I don't see how you don't understand.

[kizzume]

I just don't understand how people can be so ridiculously superstitious and ignorant sometimes. I guess it just fills me with awe when I just look at the paranoia that some people have about these things.

[Locke]

Yeah, it really doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[Mr Jolly]

I welcome this news. Hopefully we're on the way to producing non-sentient meat products. Then I can be a guilt free carnivore. :D

[Mitch]

I welcome this news. Hopefully we're on the way to producing non-sentient meat products. Then I can be a guilt free carnivore. :D
Not quite, eating meat creates TONS of pollution and it won't make a difference that it is cloned. The animals have to be somewhere and that somewhere takes up space.
This cloning honestly won't change much, what's the point? You can just produce cattle the natural way just as easily, if not easier.
So, i'm confused why they're doing this.

No, I'm not vegetarian, though sometimes I feel like I should be.

P.S. Welcome to Politics On Fire Mr. Jolly

[Locke]

Oh my god, our eating habits have been privatized! I cannot be carnivorous without being subject to ads!

[Mr Jolly]

Not quite, eating meat creates TONS of pollution and it won't make a difference that it is cloned. The animals have to be somewhere and that somewhere takes up space.
This cloning honestly won't change much, what's the point? You can just produce cattle the natural way just as easily, if not easier.
So, i'm confused why they're doing this.

No, I'm not vegetarian, though sometimes I feel like I should be.

P.S. Welcome to Politics On Fire Mr. Jolly

Oh, I don't feel guilty about pollution. I meant the cruelty involved in slaughter, particullarly with factory farming. Cloned meat is a step towards rearing non-sentient beasts that can be crammed into smaller housing and treated "like a piece of meat"! :D

Seeing as you brought up pollution, if meat were "grown" this way I'm sure it would become more practical to syphon off any methane produced and put it to good use.