I must rant a little..
I just read an article about the moral and ethical opposition to cloning animals for meat.
Insert Eye Roll Here:
First, lets just put aside the moral and ethical stickiness for just a moment. That is just pesky detail at this point in time and really, it is irrelevant until a few other issues are clarified.
I think this country has gone completely mad! I see products invented, and sold that are more cumbersome, more expensive and less efficient than their predecessors. People are creating and buying and inventing just to be doing so. Often there is no actual service provided. We have a 'newer must be better' attitude and it is destroying all known logic.
For instance, have you taken a good look at the pharmaceutical industry? Imitrex was an invaluable addition to the pharmaceutical industry. Many people, such as myself, who were previously unable to get relief from debilitating migraines, were suddenly given a medication that not only eliminated the migraine, but had no "dopey" side effects to battle. So, recently comes a new drug in the battle against migraines. It is advertised to be the newest miracle in relief. It has a brand new patent, so sells for a much more inflated price, and it is called, Treximet. The name and advertisement peeked my interest, so I looked it up. Yes, there is something up, Treximet is a combination of Imitrex and naproxen sodium... commonly known as the brand ALEVE. Yes.. we would never figure that out right? Pay the much higher price for the newer medication rather than pay the lower price and take your own naproxen sodium... (BTW, that also comes in a generic form.)
What? You might be thinking that I picked on poor Treximet, right? No.. I happen to have a row of heart medications in my cabinet that violate the same rules. Cardiac medications are really good at it.. change the mix a bit so that we will continue to pay brand name prices. "Newer is better" right?
Now, on to more important nonsense. The FDA has decided that certain types of genetically modified vegetables are NOT safe for consumption. Genetically modified corn comes to mind first. We watched as hundreds of products were pulled from shelves as the decision was made about its safety...
First, it was already being sold to people to feed to human beings, second and most absurdly, it was deemed safe to feed to livestock. Wait just a moment. What IS livestock? Pre-food right? So, I should not eat the modified corn, I should not feed it to my children, but once it is consumed by a cow and becomes ground beef or steaks, it is then safe and purified? This logic absolutely astounds me! Honestly, purchasing food is now so complicated if you actually care about such things. The labels have become as goofy as our regulation system. An organic sticker may not guarantee pesticide free, chemical free or free range. Basically, there is an application process for the sticker, and somewhere "organic" has also lost its meaning. We should have guessed when the prices of organic produce began to compete with the 'regular" stuff.
Back to food cloning... Sheesh, I told you I needed to rant...
Okay, so did anyone else read the little details about cloning animals? It is not currently possible to clone a creature at the end of its life and have it live an entire 'normal' life cycle. The DNA is aged. Apparently, the DNA has a time stamp. A "BEST WHEN USED BY" date. We don't really understand it, but it should perhaps also have a warning sticker. Stay with me, this really is not that complex.
So, a bovine embryo is created... the old fashioned way on July 1, 2011... This embryo grows and becomes a fetus then out plops a calf on April 9, 2012. Some farmer scratches his head and decides that the new legislation will allow him to increase his herd and profits exponentially by cloning. (For this argument of silliness, lets just say there is no cost to cloning, maybe it will be a federally sponsored event.)
Little Bessie the cow is cloned on her first birthday. Theoretically, Bessie II will have a normal 282 day gestation and be born on January 16, 2013. Wait, the DNA in Bessie II is already 22 months older than it was intended to be... Maybe this is not obvious to you... So... Bessie is well kept, milked only to support the farmers family and lives to a ripe old age of 14. Bessie II does not have a "normal" life expectancy. From what I have read, she probably would die sooner do to DNA damage during cryation as well as that "time stamp".
Do I feed the children Bessie II's milk? DNA is a pretty tricky material. Scientists and Doctors really just do not understand enough about it to be making these decisions. We know that things change DNA, and some are trying to alter this "time stamp" already. Guess what? Cancer is a horrible example of DNA mutation. My concern isn't just cancer, it is for the diseases and illnesses that we have not yet created.
30 years ago, BSE was unheard of. In 1984, a farmer called for help because ONE of his cattle seemed ill. It was arching its back and losing weight. By 1987 it was nightly news in England. Herds were being slaughtered, scientists were puzzled. In investigation was set up to determine the implications on human health. In 1989, a ban was placed on all BSO related food sources even though there had been no link to human illness or the possibility there of at that time. The statement was made that "If our assessments of these likelihoods are incorrect, the implications would be extremely serious."
Yes, that is correct, they did not wait until they could prove that 8 out of 10 mice would die from infected materials. They did not make excuses, saying "Well, that mouse probably would have died anyway, and the other mice dies from emotional problems." No, they just banned it, period!
Why do I talk about the cows so much? I rarely ever ate meat when I was younger, but this still affects me today. I cannot donate blood or organs because the CDC recommended at first that I wait 15 years to be safe, now they have changed their guidelines to "lifetime" for me. Would you like to know why? By 1996, there had been six cases of humans getting a similar illness after eating infected meat. There is no cure for this illness. In humans it is called vCJD..This is the human form of BSE. ( I'm not spelling that one out for you. I don't really feel like going all the way through the scientific history on CJD now, it is long winded.~ Do not laugh.) If you get it, you stumble, lose control of your mind and body, and then you die. It is not pleasant. Why does it matter? There are more elderly being diagnosed now with CJD and vCJD. It is suspected that the disease may 'incubate' for many years after infection. (They are now considering that it may lay dormant for up to 60 years.)
Why does it matter, because people are people. If a farmer notices a cow may not look quite right, rather than waiting to confirm and receive 50% of its value, why not go ahead and send it to slaughter a little early?
So... back to the cloning. BSE was thought to have been 'created' by feeding cow proteins to cows.. (Basically, grinding up whatever bits, adding it to the feed as a supplement.) We created a horrific disease that cannot be cured, incinerated, or otherwise destroyed. Do you see why I am concerned?
We are what we eat. Do I believe the FDA, when they allow something until it kills "too many" people? I tend to think that one unnecessary death is too many, especially if it is my family. Do I simply believe that it will all be just fine? To quote again, "If our assessments of these likelihoods are incorrect, the implications would be extremely serious." It is an understatement to be sure because people will be people. It is just a matter of time before someone leaves out important information just to make more money. It is just a matter of time before obvious implications are cloaked. What is terribly sad is that these are not magicians with elaborate tricks. The information is actually available to all of us, but it is a whisper with the constant shouts and screams of mass marketing drowning it. Is it really all about the money?
Okay, so I have gone on and on and not said it.. The common name for BSE is "MAD COW DISEASE".
