Archive for the ‘Cloned Meat’ Category

Cloned Meat, Cloned Human Embryos, Cloned, Cloned, Cloned

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Just 10 days ago I blogged about cloned meat and that I thought the idea of doing it for food was ludicrous, considering we throw half of all our food produce away in this country. I provided a link to an article with a picture of a stacked pile of dead pigs. We don’t need more meat, so cloning for food is a ruse to get into the research arena.

 And there is it today, in the Associated Press: “Scientists Clone Human Embryos.” Of course, we know this has been done before. As a matter of fact the article said someone from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute couldn’t tell that anything new was being presented. He said the ‘next big advance will be to create a human embryonic stem cell line’ from cloned embryos and that hasn’t been achieved yet.  I figured we didn’t need the food and the push to get cloned beings into research is the real reason we’re hearing cloned, cloned, cloned. Heck, people are still arguing about stem cells. It was a more viable idea to utilize stem cells that were going to be tossed, flushed, buried, or discarded. Now we’re going to end up creating life for stem cells, and eventually allow them to grow to get organs to part out–much worse than using discarded stem cells.  I think there is a whole lotta other expertise involved with creating life anyway. Many scientists concede to a Higher Being when they get so far into something and then can’t figure it out anymore. We haven’t figured out that real animals have emotions, suffer, and more than likely “think,” and we’re onto creating human life? That’s a scary thought, just as I said about meat. We don’t treat real farm animals humanely, what hope do cloned critters have? Ditto for the human clone business.  

The article stated that other doctors agreed that the report was interesting but the ‘real splash’ will about stem cells from cloned embryos. Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston said, ‘It’s only a matter of time before some group succeeds.’

There is a really visible push to get cloning in front of people. First, the big announcement about cloned meat being safe, then 10 days later a redundant announcement about cloning human embryos? The only purpose the last announcement serves is to keep cloning in our consciousness–safe cloned meat, cloned humans, cloned, cloned, cloned, until research is cloning away whether we agree with it or not. Real sneaky.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20080117/478ee0d0_3ca6_15526200801171818674522

Posted in Animals in Peril, Cloned Meat, FDA, Farms/Farming, Federal Government, Food, Health, Illegal Use of Animals, Meatpacking Industry, Morality, Nature, Politics, Science, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture | 2 Comments »

Cloned Meat for More Food and More Waste

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Whether or not cloned meat is safe is not an issue. It’s not a good idea based on what the meatpacking business does with real animals on industrialized farms and CAFO’s, the fact that Americans disregarded health warnings and boosted our obesity quotient some 30% last year, and our propensity to waste half of our food supply to begin with. Do we really need to clone animals for food?

It’s highly doubtful looking at these pictures of dead hogs stacked sky high that lived from birth to death confined in a box, chewing on metal bars out of distress, then died for no good purpose whatsoever:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters.

As you look at this stack of pigs, remember that science has declared them to be highly intelligent animals. If we do this to regular farm animals, what will we do with clones? Our cruelty quotient will go up and it’s not all that good now. We turn our heads to all types of cruelty already.

We don’t need to fuel obesity either. Type II diabetes is on the rise and linked with obesity from pounding down too many burgers, 20 oz. steaks, and slabs of ribs. Producing more food from cloned animals is contrary because we’re already stuffed on only half of what we produce. The average family throws away 14% of all their food. If beer and pop counts, I’m surprised it’s not higher. Rounding up cans and bottles from party aftermath is a little unnerving. There are always a bunch of them half empty and a few completely full.

So the push for cloning for more food doesn’t make sense, but the push for cloned animals for research does. We’ll be off and running in that direction all too quickly and with little recourse because we didn’t protest cloning animals for food in the first place. The FDA stated they wanted to get public opinion about cloned animals for food. So let them know.

Posted in Animals in Peril, CAFO's, Cloned Meat, Conservation, FDA, Farm Animals, Farms/Farming, Federal Government, Food, Health, Hormones in Food, Illegal Use of Animals, Meatpacking Industry, Nature, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply | 3 Comments »

PEACE to Every Living Thing on Earth

Monday, December 24th, 2007

 On Christmas Eve I think it’s important to remember where the Christ Child was born, AMONG THE ANIMALS in a manger. Every nativity scene is one with animals. A manger in those days was: “a feed trough found in a stable. In Bible times mangers were made from clay mixed with straw or from stones held together with mud; sometimes they were carved in natural outcroppings of rock,” http://www.padfield.com/1999/manger.html. There is an actual picture taken of a manger at Megiddo used in the stables of King Ahab on the linked website.

So the King of Kings was placed in the feed trough of the animals of a stable. This is a quite a statement about the beasts of the earth, that they were worthy of such an event. This Christmas take the time to reflect not only on mankind, but peace for the earth and all of the living things that are in jeopardy of extinction. The “beasts” as in animals of the earth are written about in the old and new testament over 200 times. Their importance is undeniable. We weren’t meant to live in a world without animals, especially those that have been here for centuries that are now in danger.

PEACE

Posted in Animals and Extinction, Birds, CAFO's, Climate, Cloned Meat, Conservation, Cosmetic Industry, Dolphins, Drought, Earth, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Farm Animals, Farm Bill, Fishing, Floods, Forest Service, Global Warming, Holidays, Illegal Hunting, Illegal Use of Animals, Jack Hanna, Marine Life, Meatpacking Industry, Morality, National Forest, Nature, Ocean Pollution, Polar Bears, Polar Ice Melt, Politics, Pollution, Primates, Protecting Wetlands, Protesting Pollution, Rhinos, Tigers, Urban Sprawl, Wetlands, Whales, Wildlife, Wolves, Yellowstone Park | 4 Comments »

More Than One Win for Research Animals

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

Just yesterday I watched on ABC News as chimpanzees outmaneuvered college students in a test for short-term memory. A touch screen displayed boxed numbers up to 10–I think.  I can’t remember, LOL, so the monkeys have bested me already. Touching the numbers in sequence erased them one by one. I’ve got to tell you, the monkeys were fast. The numbers appeared over and over. Mind you, I thought it was fantastic that the monkeys could push the numbers in sequence so quickly. That’s only the beginning of the test though. After pushing the numbers in sequence a few times the last 4 or five numbers would disappear.  Whoever, monkey or student, had to remember where those numbers were positioned on the screen, and still push them in sequence. The students failed, but the chimps just kept pushing the darn numbers like they were still there! The humans who thought up this test want to try the same thing on very young children. Oh that says a lot!

While I was watching this one-up-man-ship, monkey vs. human, college students no less, I was reminded of endangered primates, and all endangered animals throughout the world. The news that showed this test flashed back to the remarkable predecessors of these monkeys like KoKo and Lucy who learned language to communicate with humans. If we’re smarter, why aren’t we learning their languages? Anyway, something this close to us in intelligence being threatened in the wild for a trophy or meat is a sad statement about humanity. They already have the environment to contend with. Intelligence doesn’t seem to mean a hill of beans in this instance. Then again, look what we do to animals in circuses, road side zoos, and research. But hopefully we’re progressing.

PETA announced in its November 07 newsletter that the “National Academy of Sciences, NAS, the U.S. government’s chief scientific advisory body released a long awaited report that explodes the myth of the usefulness of animals in toxicity testing, one of the cruelest and painful types of experiments, in which animals are poisoned to death. The report concludes that these tests are ineffective and wasteful and that they should largely be replaced by better, faster non-animal tests.” Yay. Finally, after all the petitions, contributions, arguments…a break is happening for lab animals.

The newsletter also related that for the first time the National Institutes of Health, NIH, requested the University of Washington return grant money after Albert Fuchs used unauthorized procedures on monkeys. He implanted metal chambers in their heads and metal coils in the eyeballs. Lovely. Taking back funds for heinous acts of unnecessary cruelty on animals, and violating the animal welfare act hits em where it hurts, in the pocket. It’s a good attention getter anyway.  

Recently, the American Medical Student Assoc. sent PETA a letter of support to stop the military’s use of animals in trauma and surgical training and chemical casualties. There is also a big battle over sonar use in the ocean. Imagine what that sonar does to dolphins, whales, and other things that have a rightful claim to a home in the ocean. We protest the seal hunts, dolphin hunts, and bushmeat trade from other parts of the world and look what we do to animals. 

Research is a very big lobby, and most of us have been fed trite little explanations like “We have to do incredibly cruel research on intelligent animals, and/or someone’s lost pet that got sold to the system or some little kid will die.” That seems a little outmoded. I hope the latest discovery in stem cell research stops animal research altogether. Besides there have been recalls of drugs that tested OK on animals but caused serious problems, even death for humans taking a much lesser dose. There are also risks for viruses jumping species and becoming more virulent. Hopefully, this new awareness for endangered animals will lead to a renewed appreciation for all living things in the world, maybe for each other. 

Posted in Animals and Extinction, Bushmeat Trade, Cloned Meat, Conservation, Cosmetic Industry, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Illegal Use of Animals, Marine Life, Nature, Pollution, Protesting Pollution, Science, Wildlife | 1 Comment »

Cloned Animal Meat

Wednesday, December 27th, 2006

I got a kick out of the controversy over cloned food that made the news this morning. The FDA is ready to make a new ruling. They say meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as any other meat. More than likely, our other meat is pumped with hormones. Our other meat is fed food that is filled with additives and fertilized with the hormonal animal manure, blood, and bacteria. Our other meat is doused with pesticides while breathing the fumes from the cesspools below them.  Our other meat is sickly and then pumped with drugs to keep alive. Where is the Center for Food Safety for these conditions? They are voicing their concern over cloned meat.


So to say cloned animals are as safe as any other meat is not saying much at all. I wonder if some of the medical conditions we suffer are from eating meat like this? Kids suffer Attention Deficit Disorder. Adults suffer ADD also. There are conditions out there that go undiagnosed after years of tests. Autism is growing. Girls reach puberty earlier. Boys go bald sooner.


We need to pay attention to our food industry. We’ve had a preview of tainted food already. Not a terrorist to blame but ourselves. We’ve allowed industrialized farming and they are terrorists of a different sort according to the small farmers they’ve put out of business.  And we’re worried about cloned animals? I suggest if we take up the fight against cloned animal meat do it also to discontinue industrialized farming. Read my “Pig Poo” blog. The future of our food and freshwater depend on our petitioning our representatives to stop monopolies like Smithfield Foods and other industrialized farmers.


45% of Americans polled thought cloning animals is morally wrong. Industrialized farming is the most immoral act I’ve read about yet. The pollution from them is overwhelming. The animals live a life of hell. They are literally traumatized from birth to slaughter. And this is on the heels of science that declares pigs have a high degree of intelligence. Oh how I loved pork. I don’t eat it anymore. Red meat is an occasional treat.


You might say animals have always been foodstuff. The act of slaughter is not pretty. But I like to think we at least allowed the animal to have a life first, grazing, and procreating. It’s called kosher.  A decree by God for his animals. They are to be treated with care and decency. The slaughter should be clean and swift. Our idea of morality and the animal kingdom is like the fickle finger of fate that points and misses more than not. We’re concerned about cloned animals while the suffering of those given us by God goes ignored.


The next time you receive “junk mail” that is from Farm Sanctuary, or a Farm Animal charity, read it. They exist for a purpose. We not only need to watch how much we eat for our health, but what that food went through to get on our plate.

Posted in AADD, ADD, CAFO's, Clean Water Act, Cloned Meat, FDA, Farm Animals, Farm Bill, Federal Government, Food Supply Contamination, Great Lakes Pollution, Great Lakes Water, Hormones in Food, Imported Foods, Michigan Clean Water, Michigan Pollution, Michigan Sierra Club, Monroe Pollution, Morality, Nature, Pollution, Protesting Pollution, Self-regulation, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply, Waterkeeper Alliance | 5 Comments »