xdamage
01-16-2008, 09:19 AM
Oh, and we need more science in schools. I swear, say the word clone and some people think that suddenly a full-grown biological entity is zapped into existence.
I sure hope people don't think that, but it wouldn't surprise me if some do. Yea, a clone still takes just as long to grow up as any of us. The meat doesn't just pop into existence from a machine.
Why would an industry that wants to make a profit go to cloning when it is so much more expensive than breeding? I think there will be very little cloned meat on the market.
Sure. The FDA's job is not to decide if a food or drug (or technique) can be made profitable on the open market, just to decide if it is safe. I agree, in the short term there will be little cloning, but things can change. As the technology advances, the cost of cloning may come down to the point where it is inexpensive enough.
why isn't there a poll option like "I don't care"? 'cause I don't really care.
Yes, there should be an I don't care choice.
PS. And besides, what's the point of cloning meat anyways? Is a male and a female of the same species so hard to gather in one room/field for the good old fashioned "monkey" (or cow/pig) love?
Well, I was watching a video the other day. It seems that jacking off a stud animal and inseminating multiple females with the collected ejaculate is done in some cases, so don't be sure the meat you eat now is the product of love or lust ;)
What is the point of it? Presumably multiple reasons.
First, product consistency. Taste, texture, etc. Cloning removes a big variable here. Say for example you finally cross breed enough cows that you end up with a cow whose meat has a the right amount of fat, good flavor, etc. You can try to maintain it by cross breeding, and prey that the stock is not wiped out due to a virus, or you can keep the DNA sequence and clone, guaranteeing the same results every time. It seems so impersonal, but it's really just one step removed from what is done now with cross breeding of plants and animals.
Second, yield. Without careful control of the breeding, you're likely to end up with a mix of healthy and not so healthy animals. So imagine if you could inexpensively select to breed only animals that are healthy, that gain weight well, etc. In the long run that could be cheaper.
Third, cost. In theory you could clone and raise the animals anywhere in the world guaranteeing consistent results, including parts of the world where labor is cheap. The natural way ... well the animals live and die in certain environmental conditions, and if the breed dies out ... no more offspring. The problem is your breeding stock may not survive if you try to move them to another location, and shipping animals after they are born for feeding adds costs. With cloning, in theory you can raise say "Angus beef" anywhere that is cheapest. The implantation of the cloned DNA can be done anywhere. In reality probably not yet. Not if it turns out that the cloned animals are affected dramatically by their surrogate mother (maybe in the future they will have artificial wombs though), or if the environment is a key factor in their growth (e.g., maybe the taste of the meat depends heavily on the grass, which depends on the soil, etc., and the cost of cloning and reproducing all of that elsewhere is impractical). Time will tell.
I sure hope people don't think that, but it wouldn't surprise me if some do. Yea, a clone still takes just as long to grow up as any of us. The meat doesn't just pop into existence from a machine.
Why would an industry that wants to make a profit go to cloning when it is so much more expensive than breeding? I think there will be very little cloned meat on the market.
Sure. The FDA's job is not to decide if a food or drug (or technique) can be made profitable on the open market, just to decide if it is safe. I agree, in the short term there will be little cloning, but things can change. As the technology advances, the cost of cloning may come down to the point where it is inexpensive enough.
why isn't there a poll option like "I don't care"? 'cause I don't really care.
Yes, there should be an I don't care choice.
PS. And besides, what's the point of cloning meat anyways? Is a male and a female of the same species so hard to gather in one room/field for the good old fashioned "monkey" (or cow/pig) love?
Well, I was watching a video the other day. It seems that jacking off a stud animal and inseminating multiple females with the collected ejaculate is done in some cases, so don't be sure the meat you eat now is the product of love or lust ;)
What is the point of it? Presumably multiple reasons.
First, product consistency. Taste, texture, etc. Cloning removes a big variable here. Say for example you finally cross breed enough cows that you end up with a cow whose meat has a the right amount of fat, good flavor, etc. You can try to maintain it by cross breeding, and prey that the stock is not wiped out due to a virus, or you can keep the DNA sequence and clone, guaranteeing the same results every time. It seems so impersonal, but it's really just one step removed from what is done now with cross breeding of plants and animals.
Second, yield. Without careful control of the breeding, you're likely to end up with a mix of healthy and not so healthy animals. So imagine if you could inexpensively select to breed only animals that are healthy, that gain weight well, etc. In the long run that could be cheaper.
Third, cost. In theory you could clone and raise the animals anywhere in the world guaranteeing consistent results, including parts of the world where labor is cheap. The natural way ... well the animals live and die in certain environmental conditions, and if the breed dies out ... no more offspring. The problem is your breeding stock may not survive if you try to move them to another location, and shipping animals after they are born for feeding adds costs. With cloning, in theory you can raise say "Angus beef" anywhere that is cheapest. The implantation of the cloned DNA can be done anywhere. In reality probably not yet. Not if it turns out that the cloned animals are affected dramatically by their surrogate mother (maybe in the future they will have artificial wombs though), or if the environment is a key factor in their growth (e.g., maybe the taste of the meat depends heavily on the grass, which depends on the soil, etc., and the cost of cloning and reproducing all of that elsewhere is impractical). Time will tell.