Meat from a cloned animal

[Laddy Muck]

Would it bother you? And/or would you want to know whether or not meat for human consumption had come from a cloned animal?

[StraferJack]

A lot of people couldn't give two hoots about the state of the animal they eat as it is. So why cloned meat would bother them beats me

But there will be a "science" scare and THAT they will worry about

Good meat needs good husbandry and good butchery. Anything else is just fuel

[Frankito]

As long as I don't recognise my own dog from the cloned meet I don't care..

Are we to say that babies born of IVF are not real babies..? Absolutely NOT.. Hail science I say.

[Salsaboy]

You're never alone with a clone.

[Huguenot]

We eat and drink cloned stuff every day. Most wine grapes are cloned. All seedless grapes are cloned. Red Delcious, Gala and even the most quintessential English apple: The Granny Smith are all clones.

We don't have a problem with that.

The difference between animal and vegatable is very grey: many steps from single to multiple celled entities, through to even complex ideas like a central nervous system or mobility, can contain components that are more commonly (but NOT exclusively) found on one side of the dividing line or the other.

In other words it's very fragile and arbitrary to define something as an animal or a vegetable. In that sense this argument is entirely subjective, and unlikely to reveal any definitive answer.

We also have no real objection to animal clones: we don't terminate identical twins at birth simply because they are clones.

Hence we can't really have a rational objection to cloned meat - there must be some other problem.

I think the problem is that despite the way that humans worship the sanctity of the human existence, we're also bright enough to recognise the things we have in common with other animals.

This means that if we can clone animals, that means we might be able to clone each other - and that presents us with a serious challenge with our own identity - the comfortable belief that we are unique and therefore special.

The answer to that is to find a philosophy for identity that doesn't rely so much on where we come from or what we're made of. Instead start thinking about who we are, what we do, and what we contribute. We make our own identity, it's not imposed upon us.

I don't have any problem with clones - I'm virtually a clone of my own father. I don't have any problem eating them either.

[StraferJack]

Cooking them is where the problem is for some, right H? ;-)

[Huguenot]

Well, I'm a great fan of parma ham - so if cooking's the problem there are plenty of options out there.

Do you think this 'clone' argument is a 5th column from the veggie brigade? A mask for another attack on meat-eaters?

[huncamunca]

Non issue.Unless you read the guardian of course.

[Huguenot]

I read the Guardian, and don't have an issue with it?

It appears instead, huncamunca, that the problem is with the Daily Mail and Frankenfoods.

It seems the Mail have a bigger problem with cloned meat than they do with Europe?

[Laddy Muck]

OK, so you may not have an issue with eating it. But would you want to know whether or not it was cloned? I.e., would you expect to find some information on whether or not the meat came from a cloned animal on the packaging?

[Frankito]

I dont actually care and neither should you be preaching given the strawberrygate incident. Did you check if those were cloned; I guess not, eh...

[Laddy Muck]

Oh very funny Frankito! But, I didn't realise I was preaching. At least I didn't mean to. Am curious, that's all.

[Frankito]

And I am just pulling your leg.. It's a fair question to ask however give me cloned any day, I don't see how it could harm me and not sure I care to see it on labelling either. There is enough chaff printed on goods we buy these days, a lot of which I believe goes ignored.

[huncamunca]

95% of the world is not able to sit back and chew over the philisophical and moral issues involved in this question. Drop the Guardian a note and Im sure they can get a 2 page bumper spread going of the issues involved and you can muse to your hearts content whilst supping your fair trade coffee and soil association approved muffins.

Non issue for much of the world, a luxury decision for some of us. get over it.

[maxxi]

I would have more of an issue with the way the animal was reared, what it was fed , how it was housed and slaughtered, whether it was hung for long enough and butchered well and how much it made me go mmmmn when I ate it.

I would rather eat a cloned animal that was not intensively farmed or had its mass (no matter what speed it was going at H) artificially increased and wasn't fed on the ground-up carcasses of other animals than vice versa.

[Huguenot]

The reason why I don't expect cloned meat to be labelled 'cloned' is that it's a misdirection - it doesn't mean anything.

It's like getting obsessive about whether a potential boyfriend's brother wears blue socks: the only vaalid answer to the 'cloned' question is WTF? Are you serious?

There are far more important things to know before you get to cloning - exactly what maxxi says: food, rearing, slaughter, hanging, transport are all more important.

Just to remind huncamunca again - it's not the Guardian, it's the Mail that's pushing this agenda.

[Laddy Muck]

Frankito Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> And I am just pulling your leg.. It's a fair

> question to ask however give me cloned any day, I

> don't see how it could harm me and not sure I care

> to see it on labelling either. There is enough

> chaff printed on goods we buy these days, a lot of

> which I believe goes ignored.

OK OK...Interesting reply though - and I think you are right about labelling going ignored much of the time. Though personally, I would prefer to see appropriate labelling. For me, it's all about customer choice.

Now get down to Cafe Nero and get your caffeine hit before someone gives you a clip around the ear!