If you want to clone a cow, whatever. If you want to clone a cow and sell its milk and meat, fine. I think I run into the most distress when you want to clone a cow, sell its milk and meat and then not tell consumers that it was cloned because you know they won’t want to buy it. Why do food manufacturers (not farmers or ranchers, but manufactures since they are literally making the meat) feel the need to trick people into buying a product? If they thought it was wonderful, why not sell it at face value?
I'll be more suspicious now when they all "moo" at the same time.
Because it isn’t wonderful to all of us. It’s actually kind of unsettling. And weird.
Fortunately, cloned meat cannot be labeled as “organic.” The only way to avoid cloned products is to buy certified organic foods. In grocery stores that is easy enough, but it means doing quite a bit of research on restaurants.
Suddenly, all those 2 for $3 deals at burger joints throughout the South are starting to make sense. I always wondered why we didn’t have some rampant animal shortage with all of our all-you-can-eat buffets and X for $Y deals at fast food establishments. The answer, I guess, is that they don’t have to wait for some special mating practices and a long growth process for the animals. They can simple make an animal, pump it with hormones, chop that bad boy up and toss it to you at the drive-thru window!
Would you like fries with that?
Further Reading: Washington Post, Wired Science, The Sunday Times, U.S. News
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