Cloned Meat

[M13]

Hi all,

I'm on day 9 of a 40 day trial of eating no meat. So far so good. I feel fine and don't feel like I'm missing anything. It is a less convenient way to eat since I have to do more and separate planning for my meals. However, yesterday I noticed my wife sneaked one of my Baca burgers so maybe it will get easier as time goes on and the people around me start to become more accepting.
I like the taste of meat and the traditions around it, so my reason for giving it up temporarily is for the sake of the animals. I'm not doing it for health reasons.
Anyway, I was talking to a friend about my little experiment and the topic of cloned meat came up. Would I have the same issue eating meat if no animal (other than the first one) had to die?
I read about scientist growing body parts on lab animals so I'm pretty sure its just a matter of time before they start producing boneless, skinless chicken breast in a lab. I seems really disgusting at first but then I think about it isn't it better than continuing to kill the animals?
Not everyone is going to be a vegetarian. (Maybe not even me) So is laboratory grown meat a positive alternative for carnivores?

[John Hill]

We live in a super advanced world, you might say we are now living on the cutting edge of science. Scientific advancements are multiplying at a rapid rate and this is unlikely to stop unless of some type of global catastrophe.
So there is every chance we may be eating cloned meat in the future for a number of reasons.

This may have nothing to do with being cruel to animals and more to do with many places in the world suffering severe drought due to climate change like in Australia which is a huge producer of meat products. If there is no water to grow crops to feed these animals we may need to look for alternative solutions in regards to meat supply.

It also may be cheaper to eat cloned meat and since the majority of the world eats meat, the cost factor is an issue. I eat meat and to be honest I wouldn't know if it was from a cloned animal or not. I buy it, I cook it, I eat it, I enjoy it and I'm ok with it. I don't think it's really that important to get caught up in the details of every little issue.

John

[escapee]

Never trust another "human made" food

Stop the FDA from Approving Cloned Meat

But when it comes to the safety of our food, cloning carries vast unknowns. Clones can suffer from hidden health defects that could poison their milk or meat. Dr. Ian Wilmut, leader of the team that cloned Dolly, has said that even small, invisible changes in a clone’s physiology could lead to unsafe milk or meat. Scientists have also warned that health problems in clones could lead to an increase in the incidence of food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli infections. Also, animal clones are usually unhealthy at birth, and so they are treated with high doses of antibiotics and other medications. This suggests that cloning will increase residues of veterinary drugs in milk and meat. FDA has completely failed to address this concern.

Animal cloning has a terrible track record for animal welfare. Dolly the cloned sheep suffered from premature arthritis and lung disease, and lived to just half the normal age for her breed. Typically, more than 90% of cloning attempts fail; of the so-called “successful” clones – those born alive – many die after just a few weeks or months. Cloning requires subjecting animals to terrible suffering: animal clones are often born with hideous defects, including enlarged tongues, squashed faces, intestinal blockages, immune deficiencies, and brain abnormalities.

FDA says that defective clones will be removed from the food supply. They say that clones are generally healthy once they survive past six months. But one of the world’s leading cloning scientists, Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch of MIT, has stated that clones are always defective to some degree. “You cannot make normal clones,” he said. “The ones that survive will just be less abnormal than the ones that die early.” Dr. Jaenisch also says that clones can suffer from unexpected defects at any age; his studies on mice suggest that defects in cloned cows could fester unnoticed for years before manifesting and causing death or disease.