2008 Woodie Awards
Dolly to the Dinner Table: FDA Has Questionable Confidence
Lora Powell/Muleskinner
Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
It's hard for me to imagine a world where people place such high value on breeding that cloning the perfect livestock, pet or child could become socially acceptable. It seems ridiculous to think about, but society is moving closer and closer to such an attitude.
I remember when Dolly the sheep was cloned. At the time, it was kind of entertaining. The thought of a real clone seemed like something you would see in a supermarket tabloid, instead of plastered all over the evening news. Cloning is a tedious, expensive process that I didn't think would be repeated.
Now, we are cloning everything. Bucking bulls, barrel racing horses and fuzzy kittens all seem to be turning up with body doubles.
Livestock breeders seem to think cloning is going to take all the work out of the breeding process. No longer will you have to wait and see if a cow or bull will consistently produce quality offspring. Now, simply take your prized animal to a cloning company to make a copy.
Evidently, a live animal is not required to make a clone. Simply bring in a nice side of beef, have it biopsied, and voila! An animal will appear from the cells of slaughtered meat.
If I owned a farm, I couldn't see myself bringing an animal into my herd that had no mother or father. It seems like something shown late at night on the Sci-Fi Channel.
The FDA has been collaborating with ViaGen, an animal cloning corporation, to determine the safety of food products produced by clones. So far, they have found nothing to show the foods aren't safe for consumption. In fact, the FDA is so confident the foods are safe, they are not going to label cloned food to alert customers.
When I'm at the grocery store, I can easily find out if the produce I'm buying is organic or not, but I won't be able to tell if the meat I'm buying comes from a clone.
Having been raised on a cattle farm, I'm a little squeamish about eating beef from the grocery store because I'm not sure where it came from, how it was taken care of or what it was fed. I guarantee if the FDA markets cloned meat, I will get all my beef products from my parent's freezer.
The talk of cloned livestock and cloned food bothers me, but I also worry about the implications of these actions on our future.
To save the heartache of losing a family pet, people are starting to have their cats and dogs cloned. The way I see it, it is only a matter of time before parents will be able to clone their children.
Will we begin cloning people who are intelligent, physically fit and free of disability or genetic disease?
Before it was possible to clone, another form of genetic cleansing was occurring in Germany.
A man who had an idea for a perfect society decided only blonde-haired, blue-eyed people should have the right to live. Anyone who didn't fit his profile was destroyed.
I can't help but wonder if our attitude toward "good breeding" will start applying to the human race.
I remember when Dolly the sheep was cloned. At the time, it was kind of entertaining. The thought of a real clone seemed like something you would see in a supermarket tabloid, instead of plastered all over the evening news. Cloning is a tedious, expensive process that I didn't think would be repeated.
Now, we are cloning everything. Bucking bulls, barrel racing horses and fuzzy kittens all seem to be turning up with body doubles.
Livestock breeders seem to think cloning is going to take all the work out of the breeding process. No longer will you have to wait and see if a cow or bull will consistently produce quality offspring. Now, simply take your prized animal to a cloning company to make a copy.
Evidently, a live animal is not required to make a clone. Simply bring in a nice side of beef, have it biopsied, and voila! An animal will appear from the cells of slaughtered meat.
If I owned a farm, I couldn't see myself bringing an animal into my herd that had no mother or father. It seems like something shown late at night on the Sci-Fi Channel.
The FDA has been collaborating with ViaGen, an animal cloning corporation, to determine the safety of food products produced by clones. So far, they have found nothing to show the foods aren't safe for consumption. In fact, the FDA is so confident the foods are safe, they are not going to label cloned food to alert customers.
When I'm at the grocery store, I can easily find out if the produce I'm buying is organic or not, but I won't be able to tell if the meat I'm buying comes from a clone.
Having been raised on a cattle farm, I'm a little squeamish about eating beef from the grocery store because I'm not sure where it came from, how it was taken care of or what it was fed. I guarantee if the FDA markets cloned meat, I will get all my beef products from my parent's freezer.
The talk of cloned livestock and cloned food bothers me, but I also worry about the implications of these actions on our future.
To save the heartache of losing a family pet, people are starting to have their cats and dogs cloned. The way I see it, it is only a matter of time before parents will be able to clone their children.
Will we begin cloning people who are intelligent, physically fit and free of disability or genetic disease?
Before it was possible to clone, another form of genetic cleansing was occurring in Germany.
A man who had an idea for a perfect society decided only blonde-haired, blue-eyed people should have the right to live. Anyone who didn't fit his profile was destroyed.
I can't help but wonder if our attitude toward "good breeding" will start applying to the human race.
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