Farmer: Cloned Cows May Be Sold for Meat

[NVMojo]

WILLIAMSPORT, Md. (AP) - For nearly four years, dairy farmer Greg Wiles has poured milk from his cloned cows down the drain in compliance with a voluntary ban on food from cloned livestock.

Now in financial straits, Wiles says he may be forced to sell his cloned cows for hamburger.

The Food and Drug Administration says that's probably safe, but pressure from the food industry has kept the agency from actually approving it. Milk and meat marketers worry that consumers won't accept food from cloned animals.

Wiles says he can't wait any longer. Facing eviction in a bitter family business dispute, he says he may be forced to violate the ban and sell his two clones for hamburger meat.

"If I don't find a new home for these animals for them to live out their lifetime, I could be forced by a court of law to introduce them into the food chain," Wiles says.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/dec/19/121907894.html

[mike_c]

1. good gawd, I'll take a side of that for my freezer any day....

We eat cloned plants every day. Meat is meat as far as clonal vs syngamy goes. I would be happy to eat cloned cows.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Augh! Cloned poop!

I hate it when that happens!

[daleo]

6. We once thought feeding cows ground up dead cows was ok, too

We can't really be sure that the process of cloning doesn't have some unhealthy effect. Mad cow disease should be a cautionary tale, in these matters.

[warrens]

7. Actually, there were always warnings about making cows into cannibals

No one seriously thinks clones are a health threat, only that clones tend to be unstable and prone to disease, although that hasn't been proven. The thing is, the average clone costs tens of thousands of dollars. Selling these guys for hamburger is ridiculous. I imagine any ag school with a research wing would happily buy them for their meat value. Sounds to me like this guy has other motives, perhaps to get even with someone in his family that wants the clones.

Feeding vegetarian cattle meat, much less meat from other cattle, was always a bad idea, and scientists pointed out that human cannibals had developed horrible brain diseases from eating the brains of other humans, and said it was likely that every species would be vulnerable to such infection. Greed trumped science.

[daleo]

8. I think there are a few good reasons not to eat cloned cattle

- precautionary principle (we just can't be sure that this is safe, so the onus should be on ag/bus to prove it is safe, not the other way around).
- there was some concern about clones having more aged cells with each generation (shorter telemeres or something, although I don't know how that has played out).
- genetic diversity seems like a good thing in principle.
- monoculture techniques seem to be inherently advantageous for corporations over smaller producers.

I gave up on beef a few years ago, after the mad cow cases of 2003.

[karlrschneider]

9. Same here! I have no problem at all with it!

...

[don954]

3. whats the problem? Its not like they crossed its DNA with a daisy or something

Its just a cow...!

[flvegan]

4. Wah.

Bitter family dispute? Poor baby...

[damntexdem]

5. Sure the meat will be sold. But if the milk is sold, will it be used to make ...

ice cream clones?

[Infinite Hope]

10. "I could be forced by a court of law to introduce them into the food chain"....flawed logic...

No court action forces one to sell their cows for hamburger. They can sell them to someone on a hobby farm, maintain them as pets, sell them to a petting zoo, take them to county fairs and other fairs to win prizes...etc. No court order requires introduction to the food chain. That logic says "The court, by preventing me from introducing cloned byproducts into the food chain forces me to introduce them into the food chain."