Thursday, August 16, 2007

Where's The Beef?

Remember those old Wendy's commercials back in the 80's when the old lady (Clara Peller) would always speak her legendary catch phrase Where's The Beef ? Well, thanks to the recent miracles achieved in the field of science, we may be asking that question in a serious manner.

Stepping Back...

July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be cloned by human beings. She is cloned from an adult somatic cell. Dolly dies due to lung disease on February 14, 2003. Speculation runs through the scientific community on whether or not more complex organisms can be cloned through the same method used for Dolly. Against much opposition an controversy, cloning and research related to it continue to proceed through the years, and the research does not cease.

December 29, 2006, reports from the Food and Drug Administration have concluded that cloned meat is in fact safe for human consumption. Milk from cloned animals is safe to drink as well. The FDA also reports that if the food is virtually the same as regular, natural meat, then it will not be required cloned food to carry a label saying that it is cloned. This means that the consumer will not be able to tell the difference between meat from a cloned animal and meat from a "regular" animal. Although meat from cloned animals may not hit the market while you are reading this, it will not be far off from now either. Cloned meat may hit the shelves in a year, or ten years, depending on production of that food, and whether or not a large number of people show side effects that are serious enough to pull the food from the public markets. Interestingly enough, this whole situation, as of now, is only pertaining to the United States. Other countries have not made it clear on what their stance on cloned food is yet, but if it does turn out to be safe, the United States may have itself another good which it can make money off of. America could export meat left in right, which would help both the economy and countries that have food shortages as well.

Where is the beef?

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