Do you know where your food comes from?!

tyedyechick0930

http://tiredofbeingtubby.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/do-you-know-where-your-food-comes-from/

I recently did some research on cloned and genetically engineered animals for food consumption. I was shocked! I mean, I know there are some serious problems with the mass food industry, but dang! Anyway, I thought I would share...

~Charity :noway:

http://tiredofbeingtubby.wordpress.com/

KayteeBear

That why I rarely ever buy meat at the store. I was raised on a farm where we ate most of our own meat so I still get meat from my dad, beef, chicken, pork...yum. And I get eggs from friends. And now I just want a milk cow so I can always drink the best, yummiest milk. lol

RobynC79

Do you?

Cloning animals is prohibitively expensive. The animals that have been cloned are usually on research farms, not in your average slaughterhouse supplying the local supermarket. It is extraordinarily unlikely that any meat from cloned animals is in your local supermarket.

Do you actually know what a cloned animal is? It is not the same as a transgenic (containing DNA from another species inserted by a human), it's essentially an identical twin of the original animal. You eat cloned plants all the time - humans graft plant cuttings onto new root bases from the same plants as a standard practice. So what makes cloned plants ok to eat but not cloned animals? Seriously, think about what is inherently more wrong with meat from a cloned animal than from a standard animal

As for 'genetically engineered' meat - there are no transgenic animal species in the food supply. There are transgenic animals used for research. Again, the cost of production makes them an untenable source of income to be slaughtered for meat.

So if you want to worry about factory farming, go ahead - there are things worthy of concern there. But this is unfounded, hysterical fear-mongering that has little connection to the reality of either meat production or genetic research.

tyedyechick0930

Yes, I understand what a cloned animal is. And, I also understand that most cloned animals are not created for food but for breeding. That's why, no you may not be eating cloned animal's meat, but you are eating a cloned animal's offspring. And, it is still disturbing to me. I'm not trying to fear monger anyone. But, it's disturbing. And, in my post I also mention how all the hormones and anitbiotics used are disturbing as well. You obviously didn't read my post on my blog or any of the link provided.

If you think it's ok to eat a cloned animals offspring then more power to you. But, to me that's still genetically modified meat. Another point was brought up by a friend. Nature always sheds the weaker animals first, only the strong survive..well if all our meat is from the same dna and a disease affects that dna, then a vass majority of that meat source will be affected then say a grassfed farm raised meat source. Just saying..this is all food for thought. I found this information interesting and wanted to pass it along.

RobynC79

Nature always sheds the weaker animals first, only the strong survive..well if all our meat is from the same dna and a disease affects that dna, then a vass majority of that meat source will be affected then say a grassfed farm raised meat source.

None of our domesticated animals have been completely subject to natural selection for however many generations they've been bred by humans, so in effect they are all weak and would not survive without human care. If you're suggesting that grass-fed beef is going to be immune to the next great cattle plague that will fell the otherwise-now-entirely-cloned factory farm animals, you are quite wrong. Until a disease comes along that selects for the naturally immune, you have no idea who'd do better. Maybe all the clones would be the resistant ones. It's equally possible. Now, it is certainly true that genetic diversity is a good thing in any population, but it is substantially less important in a domesticated herd than a wild one. I think the argument that somehow all animals will be genetically identical at some point is a classic reductio ad absurdum argument.


Here's my offer to you: explain what is actually 'wrong' (ethically, morally, nutritionally, whatever you like) with eating meat from cloned animals, in a cogent argument that contains actual facts, and I'll gladly concede the argument.

tyedyechick0930

Wow..well, I was just trying to provide some articles about cloned animals in the food industry. Articles which you obviously have not even bothered to look at. I thought this was a place to share information with one another, not attack each other and call each other's posts absurd.
I personally think it's unethical to eat meat that has been genetically altered. And, I was disturbed how the FDA did very little research before declaring cloned meat safe for consumption and not enforcing labeling on any meat that has been genetically modified (which I feel includes any offspring of a cloned animal).
If you would read the link to the articles, you would find one that actually interviewerd ViaGen, who is the owner of the patent to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the first animal cloned from adult cells. The owner of that company owns a ranch where he has 9 clones of a prize winning cow he owned previously (which he still has dna stored on). Brian Bruner even mentions that if you watch the cloned cows, it's eerie how much they are like the original cow. They all heard to the same shute for food in the same place the original cow went and all have the same manurisms of the original cow.
I just found this all interesting and I want to continue to do more research on the subject. There is no need for nasty attitudes on here.