Dude, from what I've heard bananas will eventually go extinct. It's either from a fungus or some genetic problem, but yeah, eventually they are supposed to go extinct.

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According to theory, that is the future of all things.


All this talk about perservatives and such reminds me of a t-shirt I once saw,

Eat Well, Stay Fit And Die Anyway".

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I am definately agains this. If they do release it into the market I firmly believe it should be labeled as such. Not doing that denies me the right to choose what I want to eat. Heck, they already require the country of origin to be listed on produce, ect....why not cloned meat? Money talks here.

Not to be morbid but I once read that after a person dies these days, the body decomposes slowly due to all the preservatives consumed in food products (so the heck with being embalmed...you already are lol!) Anyway, if I recall correctly, Dolly, the first cloned sheep died very early due to the fact that she was from "old" matter and not like a newborn animal at all. Hate to see the consequences there.

But then, perhaps the gov. has figured out a way to keep us from living longer and bankrupting social security (just kidding about that - couldn't resist though).

That shouldn't be a problem. From where I sit it looks like the issue is so controversial that meat processors who don't use cloned meat will want to label their meat as NOT coming from cloned steers, and will probably do a better business because of it.
It may not be to ahyone's advantage to make a point of telling consumers it IS from clones.


But a clone isn't made of "old matter". The animal grows from a fertilized egg the same way as from normal fertilization. The only difference is in the DNA that tells the cells how to develop. Cloned DNA is identical to the original instead of a mix of both mother and father. The only thing "old" is the handful of molecules that kicks the whole process into gear.

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It's a good point, but you know, most of our dairy herd in the US is holsteins (the big black and white cows), and there is enough genetic material in the entire US holstein herd for maybe a dozen individuals, so they are almost as good as clones, anyway. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but it seems to have worked so far. Probably partly because one of the things that has been selected for is disease resistance- a sick cow produces less milk, and so gets culled quickly.

And, yes, cloning is a bit expensive. I would think they might use it to replicate a really good breeding bull, but not the production animals themselves.

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For milk, perhaps. However I think they are talking cloned steers for their meat. Otherwise you wouldn't have the labeling controversy due to the FDA permission to use cloned steers.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Well, Dolly's DNA was 'old'- telomeres are regions ono the ends of the chromosomes that aren't replicated (at least, not after a certian point in development), so they become shorter with each replication. Dolly's telomeres were short; 20% shorter than would be expected for her age. She also developed diseases that are typical of old age by the time she was middle aged, for a sheep. This is also why most human and animal cell lines don't last forever in culture- they run out of telomeres. Unless they are 'immortalised' by turning on the gene for telomerase, an enzyme that lengthens them after each replication. Cancer cells usually have this turned on allready, as part of their transformation into a cancer.
OK, I'm rambling..I'll shut up now.

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And I shall go in the Lady's name
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Has it actually hit the market anywhere? Cloning is more expensive than embryo transfer, and that's pretty pricy at the moment. It's only done on any scale for expensive horses (and not thoroughbreds- they have to be mated naturally to be regestered). Alot of beef and dairy farmers use AI, though, but most beef farmers also use a 'clean up' bull to catch the cows that don't take from the AI. I'd still think it would make more economic sense to clone the high quality bull (beef or dairy), and maybe even the breeding beef cow rather than the steers themselves. If both of the parents are clones, the offspring is predictable.

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And I shall go in the Lady's name
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Good information, actually.

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.