Cloned meat "safe to eat" in the UK

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by ULTRA, Dec 14, 2010.

  1. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    A couple of months ago, cloned meat was deemed safe to eat in the UK after a quantity was let into the food supply "accidentally". Apparantly as there were no obvious ill effects from eating the cloned meat, the government advisors would allow the meat to enter the food supply.

    I have a few problems with this. First, when does an "accidental" release qualify as a scientific study? Second, What is the protocol for labelling cloned meat so I can avoid it? And third, why would we want expensive cloned meat when natural meat (free-range) is still cheaper anyway?

    I don't even know if this meat has been screened for prion susceptability. As a biologist I don't like it at all and I don't want it being sneaked into my diet thankyou very much. But given the sneakiness of the researchers, will we even get a choise?
     
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  3. John99 Banned Banned

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    Why wouldnt it be safe? Its a clone
     
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  5. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    There are issues with cell super-ageing in the host. I have yet to see anything to assuage fears that this could be indirectly passed on.
     
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  7. Boris2 Valued Senior Member

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    it is unlikely that cloned meat will be sold for consumption, as you say, it is too expensive. that also is not the idea behind the cloning. you clone proven breeders to produce quality meat, which isn't cloned, to sell to consumers. the consumers then know they are getting quality assured products.
     
  8. John99 Banned Banned

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    Its like a test tube baby. And they are perfecdtly fine toddlers and grow into perfectly fine adults. I said it before, though i dont eat too much meat at all, that for free they can test it on me any time.
     
  9. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    No, the principle is not the same. These are not simply test-tube cows.
     
  10. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    Cloned meat is every bit as safe as normal meat. If you want a health issue to worry about, think of the saturated fat in some meats.

    It has nothing to do with mad cows, either. Prions are an infectious ailment and have to be transmitted. Cloned animals are no more, or less, likely to contain harmful prions than any other meat.
     
  11. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Safety aside, I do not want to eat cloned meat. I want the animals I consume to have as normal a life as they can for a farmed animal, and that requires as few needles and test tubes as possible.

    There's no need to clone farm animals, so let's not.
     
  12. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    Absolutely. There are plenty of strains of good beef, sheep and poultry. I see this as an unwanted, unnecessary experiment where we are the guinea-pigs. No thanks.
     
  13. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    I would have no problem eating cloned meat. A good juicy steak is a good juicy steak, whether it is from a cow that grew from sperm and ovum, or from a cloned cow. Indeed, it is clear that the people on this thread who say they have distaste for the idea of eating cloned meat, do so for purely emotional reasons. No such rational reason exists.

    As for why we clone animals - there are several excellent reasons, related to breeding stock and to scientific study. There would need to be substantial advances in the technology before it became economic to clone animals as sources of meat. So your emotions can remain unstimulated. You are not likely to be asked to eat cloned meat for a good time to come.
     
  14. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    I have no problem with people cloning rare or endangered animals, and this should also provide ample data for my fellow biologists to study. Without this study, the super-ageing of cloned animals could not be sorted out. There is something going on in the DNA of the cloned animals that is trying to correct the age disparity between the donor and the clone. I may be being emotional, but I see this meat as being somehow 'different' even if it's not. And I certainly don't like unlabelled, untested "accidental" releases of cloned meat as it violates my right to choose.
    But cloning does nothing to strengthen the gene-pool, and chimera are expressly prohibited, though a possibility. I fail to see how cloning can really be more than a novelty as mendelian genetics have already been used for thousands of years to provide us with excellent and varied meat animals.
    Plants have been spliced with fish genes to give them hardiness, that I can understand. But what was the point making a mouse that glows in the dark because of jellyfish genes? It's just because they can, that's all. It's irresponsible and, in my view unethical.
     
  15. Kat9Lives Registered Senior Member

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    "no-thanks" to cloned meat..

    it's not for me..
     
  16. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Why would clone meat be unsafe? Just a while back the FDA declared it safe on the stance that they could not even find a way to tell the difference between clone and un-cloned meat. So if they are identical (literally) whats the safety risk one has that the other does not?
     
  17. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    They also declared GM corn and rape to be safe, and had to back-pedal pretty darn fast when they discovered it was killing insects and cross-breeding and contaminating valuable wild strains. If they can get it so wrong on something so basic, why would I believe them now?
     
  18. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    EF

    As I pointed out, the distaste for cloned meat is purely emotional and hence irrational. Do not look for a rational reason. There is none.

    One of the good reasons for cloning is to transfer the genome of genetically modified animals. Imagine, for example, that you introduced a gene for a life saving drug into a goat, so that its milk contained the drug, which might save thousands of lives. To make enough drug, you need lots of such goats. The obvious way to 'multiply' those goats is cloning.

    To Ultra
    On GM corn and rape - it does not kill useful insects. Getting it wrong on something so basic is your error.
     
  19. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    At least that's a rational, ethically defensible reason. I would have no problem with that. I believe I read somewhere that cattle were being used to produce insulin or suchlike. Where there is genuine need I am not opposed.
     
  20. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Cattle use to be used to make insulin, today we used genetically modified yeast.
     
  21. Boris2 Valued Senior Member

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    they didn't do it just because they can.

    http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/GFP-1.htm

    shows the research behind "glowing" gm. btw they don't glow but fluoresce under uv.
     
  22. ULTRA Realistically Surreal Registered Senior Member

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    Ok, sure. I used to use some pretty nasty chemicals to mark genes for my electrophoresis runs. If fluorecent (harmless) proteins will be bound, then all well and good. But there are mavericks in the system, as in any field of work. Take the release of the cloned meat. What the hell kind of lab are they running if they genuinely lost it, and how bloody irresponsible if they didn't. Either way, it shouldn't have happened, but it did. I have no faith in them or thier claims. But that's just me.
     
  23. Raithere plagued by infinities Valued Senior Member

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    Are you referring to the cases where the clone aged rapidly?

    If so, it shouldn't have any more effect on you than eating an old cow vs eating a calf.

    ~Raithere
     

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