Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ready for Cloned Food?

The FDA says it's OK...



Yes, the FDA has approved it, and they've supposedly validated a 2006 assessment that claimed that cloned foods are safe. How do they know this? Don't we also know from experience that cloned animals are known to have health problems? See here: In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died young, and many of them were abnormally large. Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine a cause of death.

If cloned organisms are known to have such health problems, how can the FDA say that they're safe to eat?

Here we see another problem with leaving Republicans in charge of the executive branch. We have regulatory agencies that don't believe in regulating anything. Not only is it going to be allowed (with a moratorium being asked for, due to "market concerns"), but it won't even require labelling: FDA officials said there is no plan to specifically label food from cloned animals. The agency, they said, lacks legal authority to do that because it has found that food from clones is not different from conventional meat and milk.

Of course, talk of cloning puts me in mind of the movie Blade Runner. Replicants weren't labelled either. You had to figure them out by their lack of empathy.



And speaking of replicants lacking empathy, Mitt Romney won the Michigan Primary last night. He suddenly became aware while he was in Michigan that ordinary people aren't as in love with globalization as venture capitalists are. With the Democratic Primary in Michigan rendered meaningless, the entire night was simply handed to him. John McCain pretty much helped to hand it to him too, telling people with his straight talk that "your jobs probably won't be coming back." But hey, we'll see if we can retrain you. We don't build anything here anymore, and anything that can be done at a computer terminal will be done overseas from now on, but maybe we can retrain you for a McJob at 1/4 of your old paycheck.

Read My Mom in Michigan Has No Hope, by Jay Jonah Cash

10 comments:

crystal said...

Ha - you beat me to it on the cloned meat. The news story I saw seemed to say that we are probably already eating some cloned meat (well, you guys are, anyway). Nice segue to Blade Runner. So, Mitt is a replicant - that' explains so much :-)

Jeff said...

Hi Crystal,

Hey, they can clone fruits and vegetables too... :-)

Yes, it does explain Mitt, but I don't like the idea of Deckard as a replicant. I haven't seen Blade Runner in a long time. Might be a good time to see it again. It was way, way ahead of its time. Funny to think that 2019 is only 11 years away now.

crystal said...

I haven't seen it for a long time either. Young versions of Harrison Ford, James Edward Olmos, and Rutger Hauer :-)

Liam said...

That's true about the health thing. My clone was great at first, but lately he's seemed to lack inspiration and just sits in the corner all day and won't work on my dissertation.

Mitt's not a replicant, he's a d*******g.

Jeff said...

Hi Liam,

I know what you mean. If I had a clone, it would take twice as long for "me" to get nothing accomplished as it does now.

The masculine form applies to Romney too. He's hired Warren Tompkins, who, according to the McCain camp, is the guy who orchestrated all the dirty tricks that sank McCain in South Carolina in 2000. With all the robo-calls and false mailings going on, this year doesn't sound any different.

cowboyangel said...

Deck was a replicant? Oh, man. . .

I don't remember that being part of the movie. Maybe my chip is flawed.

Romney as replicant. Yes. A cloned d*******g.

If cloning could bring down the price of jamon Iberico, though . . .

Jeff said...

If cloning could bring down the price of jamon Iberico, though . . .

Ah, Geez... See, everybody's got a price.

JohnCVermont said...

Blade Runner...wow... One of my favorite movies, new Director's Cut (the final final cut ;-) ) was released in December 2007. Have you seen it yet? Is Deckard a replicant or not? The debate has been going for 25 years. I hope the question is never truly settled. It's the debate that matter, not the question!

ugh...I can't believe it's been 25 years since I saw Blade Runner for the first time.

Hi Ho & St. Patrick's Day from Vermont!

JohnCVermont said...

Oh...Is cloned moo-cow low-carb, high-protein, and zero-transcendental fats? If so, I am so there. ;-)

Actually, I will wait until they can grow meat-on-a-stick in a big vat of gen-modded goo, like sugar crystals on a string. :-)

Jeff said...

John-o!

How are you, sir? You know, at 48 myself, I'm wondering if you have a point there. I'm going for my physical and blood work in April, and I'm cringing at the thought of what the LDL and triglicerides are going to be...

Hope all is well with you guys. Drop me a line!