Cloned Meat, Milk Poised To Receive FDA Clearance

[babylonsister]

Cloned Livestock Poised To Receive FDA Clearance
by Jane Zhang, John W. Miller and Lauren Etter


Get ready for a food fight over milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring.After more than six years of wrestling with the question of whether meat and milk from them are safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that they are.


The FDA had asked producers of cloned livestock not to sell food products from such animals pending its ruling on their safety. It isn’t clear whether the FDA will lift this voluntary hold.

While many consumer groups still oppose it, the FDA declaration that cloned animal products are safe would be a milestone for a small cadre of biotech companies that want to make a business out of producing copies of prize dairy cows and other farm animals — effectively taking the selective breeding practiced on farms for centuries to the cutting edge.

Because of the price tag — cloned cattle cost $15,000 to $20,000 per copy — most of the cloned animals will be used for breeding, and it will be three to five years before consumers see milk and meat from their offspring. Some animal breeders in the U.S. have already been experimenting with cloning animals. ViaGen Inc., the largest animal-cloning company in the nation, has cloned animals, such as a cow named Peggy Sue.

Consumer wariness toward cloned food may lead to a backlash from opponents in Congress and other markets, such as the European Union, who are concerned that not enough data are available for a viable study on the safety of the products. There are also ethical worries because cloned animals tend to have more health problems at birth than conventionally bred animals.

The food industry appears to be divided over the issue. Some big food companies say they’re not interested in trying to market products from cloned animals or their offspring.

“Most consumers do not find this appealing,” says Marguerite Copel, vice president of corporate communications at Dean Foods Co., one of the nation’s largest milk producers, which says it won’t sell any milk from cloned animals.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/04/6161/

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Fine with me.

Irrational fears about this kind of thing strike me as the same as those regarding stem cells.

[peacebird]

4. I think a diverse gene pool helps protect us against a repeat event like the Irish potato famine

Which is why I prefer real breeding over cloning.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Yeah, me too.

I'm also against the Black Death, the Little Ice Age, or the Chicago Fire, but I don't think those are real dangers.

This is why I used the word "irrational."

[undergroundpanther]

9. maybe someone

wants a food crisis down the line.
A die off.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3861/is_200307/ai_n9295892/pg_1
The use of fossil fuels for exosomatic energy exploitation by humans has permitted a far more rampant increase of human population - by orders of magnitude - than what the Earth can reasonably ‘carry’, or sustain, under Hunter-gatherer-lifestyle energy norms. As a result, humans have become a “plague” on our own habitat.

And, since in the West, it takes between 10 and 17 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce and deliver ONE calorie of edible food to the table, as fossil fuels irreversibly deplete, food shortages, and ultimately, massive human starvation MUST result. Food and fossil fuels exist in a locked relationship: THIS human civilization DEPENDS on fossil-fueled Mega-agriculture to supply its exosomatic energy needs for nutrition; as fossil fuels deplete, food availability must also. “Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food” , and “the oil we eat”.

http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/?p=1002
http://dieoff.org/page8.htm
http://www.uspoliticsonline.net/political-economy-economics-tax-policy/1623-fossil-fuel-depletion-die-off-humanity.html

They regard the exponential growth of human population as a plague on the planet. The earth's resources are being gobbled up, pollution is creating a filthy mess, other species are being wiped out, and human suffering resulting from overpopulation and poverty is incredible. They want to stabilize the planet's population at a much lower level, perhaps somewhere around 2 billion, and they want to do it before all the earth's resources are gone. This means more than just birth control. More than two thirds of the population need to die. Soon.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2739926.ece
"There is a single theme behind all our work: we must reduce population levels." - Thomas Ferguson, case officer, US Office of Population Affairs (OPA).
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ldieoff.htm

[HCE SuiGeneris]

14. Irrational --is your total faith in genetically modified foods.

There is no long-term study that validates the security to humans of ingesting such foods on a daily basis. The ill effects of rBST on cows is well documented. The jury is out on its effects on humans, but in the interim, if you don't care to act as Monsanto's lab rat, you have to pay double the cost you had to pay before the introduction of rBST. That is pillaging the purses of the consumer. Why are you OK with that?

[Elidor]

17. Exactly

And there is no industry to which the maladministration's hacks will ever say no. The FDA is a sad, pathetic joke on all Americans.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. The expediting of pro-corporate rulings regarding consumer health and safety

is at a ridiculously perilous level. Advocating for this seems amazingly stupid to me. I am in total agreement Hardhead, if anything, we need reign in the corrupt FDA and critically evaluate its current policies. The long-term ill effects of the *'s policy could be devastating.

[dysfunctional press]

16. i agree...meat is meat

and if they can make copies of the best rib-eye steak out there, i say GO FOR IT!

[Mike03]

20. Bornagin,

I probably owe you an apology.

You are probably correct in your view about animal testing versus computer modeling.

I had forgotten I had put you on ignore, but I took you off and just wanted to tell you that in the heat of that debate I said something that was scientifically wrong. You are most likely correct about the animal testing issues.

Take care,

Mike

[salin]

2. so... we can't do medical research from stem cells... but

we can eat cloned meat and drink cloned dairy products. Makes sense to me :crazy:

[undergroundpanther]

3. Cloning isn't just from live

Animals they can clone from dead animals too.Dead for 48 hours enough for decomposition to get started..

Researchers at the University of Georgia announced this week that they had successfully cloned a calf from the cells of a cow that had been dead for 48 hours before her genetic material was extracted.

This is the first time a cow has been cloned from cells of a dead animals. European researchers last year announced they had cloned a sheep from cells taken from an animal that had been dead 18 to 24 hours.

The researchers claim that this will allow cattle producers to select the best beef stock from their herds to clone (since it is impossible to judge how suitable a given cow is for meat until after it has been killed).

http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2002/000146.html
http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news280.htm
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2004/09/idiot_tries_to_.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=479638&in_page_id=1770
science has gone mad.

[Parche]

5. Send In The Clones

[undergroundpanther]

7. having problems adjusting to clone status?

Clones (We're All)
Alice Cooper

I'm a clone
I know it and I'm fine
I'm one and more are on the way
I'm two, doctor
Three's on the line
He'll take incubation another day

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

We destroyed the government
We're destroying time
No more problems on the way

I'm through doctor
We don't need your kind
The other ones
Ugly ones
Stupid boys
Wrong ones

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

Six is having problems
Adjusting to his clone status
Have to put him on a shelf
(Please don't put me on a shelf)
All day long we hear him crying so loud
I just wanna be myself
I just wanna be myself
I just wanna be myself
Be myself
Be myself

I'm all alone, so are we all
We destroyed the government
We're destroying time
No more problems on the way

I'm through doctor
We don't need your kind
The other ones
Ugly ones
Stupid boys
Wrong ones

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all
I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

[RC]

8. Cloning is not a really big deal. It is the genetically modified that to follow.

Cloning is only the first step. Frankinanimals engineered to be a uniform size and weight and who knows what else. Then cloning that. That is where the real trouble starts. Look at the problems Frankincrops have caused already. And we don't even have a clue to the long term effects on people will be.

[undergroundpanther]

10. It will probably kill us

Change us, make our DNA mutate or it will injure us physically , or something.. I know that certain segments of rich narcissistic fascist oriented people think the world has too many people already and it puts them in danger like the rest of us because we are way beyond the earths carrying capacity.So they want to cause a die off somehow and get people to think a bad thing is a good thing. If the people eating cloned and re-cloned food that is genetically warped die and it cannot be blamed directly on the food, and their genetics get fucked up over time it will take awhile for people to figure it out and get over the taboos about conspiracies and learn to not trust authority.And because of the randomness and complexity there won't be fast forthcoming cures for it. If altered food gets everywhere it will if genetically messed up people, they most likely be infertile until they die.

[RC]

21. Cloned and genetically modified are two different things.

A cloned cow is identical to the cow it was cloned form. If the original cow is safe to eat then so is the clone because they are genetically the same. There is no gene modification with cloning.

If a cow is genetically modified, it depends on what got modified AND how they did the modification. Not all modifications are equal and that is where the danger comes in.

Do not confuse cloning and GM, they are not the same.

[qb]

11. I'm liking my neighborhood co-op more and more. nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. And then when the public shuns it (like BGH milk), we can expext to pay double the price.

Fucking scam :mad:

[Mike03]

13. This is my cue to go completely vegan, thank you.

I saw this yesterday, and in some strange way it was comforting, because it just confirmed what I already know: meat and dairy suck and probably are responsible for more cancer than radiation or benzene molecules.

Stay tuned, because dairy is almost certainly responsible for diabetes and dioxin contamination, leading to leukemia and hematological disorders.

[Mike03]

15. Genetically fucking with anything is not good for human beings.

There are hundreds of pages of studies on this.

The human body is amazing, but it is easily disrupted by unnatural influences.

[TZ]

23. Utterly and completely NOT true

You do understand how many diseases are caused by genetic defects? I suggest you read up on gene therapy which is showing great promise in treating Parkinson's disease among others.
In fact, many cancers are caused by genetic defects, so I guess trying to use genetic technology to prevent cancer is "evil" because it was something you were "destined to have"?
BTW, EFFING SUNLIGHT damages your DNA everytime you step out into it, but the DNA is self-repairing so only a small percentage of time people get cancer from just sitting in the sun.
Would you like to cite some of those hundreds of studies, btw?
Your knowledge of genetics is sadly lacking I am afraid. And cloning is simply making a twin. You should check to make sure you never ate meat from ANY animal artifically inseminated you know...You might be eating meat made by "genetically fucking" with the animals reproductive system.
Oy.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

19. Safety of Your Food Supply -- This is Incredibly Important

If you care, please recommend this post for visibility.

[DemGa]

22. Next, labeling "non-cloned" will become illegal

So as not to produce "irrational" fear in consumers of healthful, safe, and nutritious cloned-meat products.

[Baconfoot]

24. I'd like to see a single link to a study regarding the safety of the meat of the offspring of clones

I'd like to see a single link to a single study regarding the safety of the meat of the offspring of clones.

Until I do, then blanket statements against cloned meat and associated accusations are unfounded and reactionary.

Alternatively, provide some evidence that despite being genetically identical, differences between the development of originals and clones (perhaps due to differences in the cells from which the clones are derived), contribute to difference in the composition of, not just the structure of, the organism in a way which might be harmful to mammals. That might be tough due to what DNA is, but I could see some substance or other possibly being suppressed in normal development if all goes well.

Corruption in the FDA is no excuse for an anti-science mentality which just contributes to negative perceptions of progressives who could instead be working together to ensure the safe development and sharing of food technologies.