Would you want to know? - cloned beef

Crystalina wrote: I've been watching the news tonight and I'm hearing that in about a year they will be putting cloned beef on the grocery shelves. That is fine but what gets me is that they are not going to mark the package as being "cloned beef". I think as a consumer I should be able to choose whether I want to buy a cloned beef or regular beef. They say that there is no differance and that it is all the same but my thoughts are what happens if 5 or 10 years from now they realize that it causes some kind of illness or cancer or something? Granted I know that everything causes cancer in this day and age but I should be able to choose for my children. kwim? They are saying that the United States is going to be the first country to try this. So are we the guinea pigs? or are we the privileged ones? What do you guys thing about it?

MommyToAshley replied: I agree with you.. if they want to sell cloned beef, then fine. But, I think it should be labeled as such. As a consumer, we have the right to know just as we have the right to know if sugar has been added. I guess it is time to become a vegetarian.

CantWait replied:
I agree. I don't want me or my family to injest all those extra chemicals, and I think I should have that choice as to whether we do or not.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Glad it's you guys and not us testing it out... ewwww

I'd seen an article about that a couple months ago... ew ew ew

Here's a couple articles

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/beef021605.cfm

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/64b99...ecbccdrcrd.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...757C0A96F958260

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15632051

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA HETEROPLASMY IN CLONED CATTLE

During cloning by nuclear transfer, mitochondrial DNA is transferred along with the donor nuclear DNA into the enucleated egg. What is the fate of these donor mitochondria among the mitochondria already present in the host egg? If the donor mitochondria replicate along with the host mitochondria, then both mitochondria will be present resulting in a condition termed mitochondrial heteroplasmy.


In 1999, the mitochondrial DNA population was analyzed in ten nuclear transfer-derived sheep, including Dolly. In all ten sheep, the mitochondrial DNA was found to be derived exclusively from the recipient enucleated oocytes, with no detectable mitochondrial DNA contribution from the donor cell. The authors speculated that the absence of donor mitochondria resulted from an active mechanism that destroyed donor mitochondria in the recipient oocyte. This mechanism may be similar to that which is thought to lead to the elimination of sperm-derived mitochondria during normal fertilization.


In the July 2000 issue of Nature Genetics, however, researchers in Austria and Germany report that mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy is present in cloned cattle. The mitochondrial DNA population was examined in ten cattle clones generated from primary fetal fibroblasts, adult mammary epithelial cells, or adult skin fibroblast cells. Identification of donor and recipient mitochondrial DNAs was based on the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms.


In seven out of ten cattle clones analyzed, the percent of the mitochondrial DNA that was derived from the donor cell ranged from 0.4%-4%. This mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy was detected in a number of different tissues, and the donor to recipient mitochondrial DNA ratios remained constant throughout embryogenesis or development to term. In the other three cattle clones, there was a significant reduction or absence of donor mitochondrial DNA. The mechanism that leads to mitochondrial heteroplasmy in some cloned cattle and not others is unknown. The presence of two normal and healthy cattle clones with a mixed mitochondrial DNA population demonstrates that heteroplasmy is not deleterious to normal development.


Currently, it is not clear why cloned sheep contain only recipient mitochondria, while some cloned cattle contain both donor and recipient mitochondria. One possibility is that in these cloned sheep the particular combination of recipient nuclear and donor mitochondrial DNA is incompatible, whereas in the cloned cattle the recipient nuclear and donor mitochondrial DNA are compatible. A second possibility is that regardless of the recipient nuclear and donor mitochondrial DNA combination, sheep cells are intrinsically different from bovine cells and contain a mechanism that prevents mitochondrial heteroplasmy.


This finding of mitochondrial heteroplasmy will force a reevaluation of the use of nuclear transfer to correct mitochondrial genetic disorders. Nuclear transfer was proposed as a method of transferring nuclear genes without the accompanying mutant mitochondrial genes. This would have been possible if no mitochondria are cotransferred with the donor nucleus. However, the observation that mitochondria are transferred from the donor makes this approach less attractive.


Sources

1. Evans MJ et al. 1999. Mitochondrial DNA genotypes in nuclear transfer-derived cloned sheep. Nature Genetics 23: 90-93.

2. Steinborn R et al. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy in cloned cattle produced by fetal and adult cell cloning. Nature Genetics 25: 255-257.

Celestrina replied: Oh no. That's just wrong. How do they know what the long term effects will be? Will it affect us in any way? We can even know if something is organic, why can't we know this?

jcc64 replied: We probably can't know this because the farm lobby or whomever is pushing for cloned beef has successfully lobbied our representatives that labelling will adversely affect their sales. They did the same thing with BGH cows and their milk.
Once again, we are sold out by the FDA. They make me sick, literally. If you think the gov't will protect you or your children from unhealthy or dangerous farming practices, guess again.

EvesMom replied: Speaking of beef, I hear that there is an increased risk of breast cancer in women who consume more that 3 servings of beef per week.

boyohboyohboy replied: I heard on the news this am, that the FDA is open to consumer comment for the next year until they decide, maybe if enough of us complain in an organized forum then we can get lables...
does anyone know how to contact the FDA?

sparkys2boys replied: It's kinda scarey to think of.. what next right? I also would want to know if it is cloned or not, like someone else said, added chemicals and such, we do have the right to know IMO also.

Crystalina replied: I would love to contact the FDA with my thoughts. I don't care if they put it on the shelves but I do think it should be labeled as cloned beef so we can make our own choice as to if we want to feed that to our families.




And Hi BETH!!

Nina J replied: Well, I stopped being a vegetarian when I got pregnant again. I don't know if I'll go back to being one, but if I don't I would prefer that it was on the label. But, it's just an exact copy of another animal, so I'd eat it. Quite honestly, I don't think I'd care if they didn't put it on the packet, it'd be nice if they did though

Cece00 replied: I dont buy meat @ a grocery store but yes, I do think they should label it. My family raises cows that are steroid/hormone free so we eat that. I'm hoping to convince my parents to start with chickens soon, too, but I dont know if I'll ever convince them to do pigs...

coasterqueen replied:
Same here. We buy our meat from a local farmer and we are looking at investing in his business so we have at least a tiny bit of control of what he does. Luckily we should not have to deal with cloned beef if we go with organic farmers. The only time we'd encounter it is when eating at restaurants, which I believe if this happens we will probably eat less of.

Also the one who talked about cancer in women from the cow beef, that would be because of all the hormones injected in them, as well as all the pesticides/pcb's they encounter. It's not just because they are eating beef, it's all the crap the cows are fed.

msoulz replied: I just want to know if it tastes like chicken.

hawkshoe replied: Personally I am against cloning altogether, so I definately would not want to be buying cloned meat. I had heard about this and it does anger me. I also saw a show on this about 6 months ago and they said there is no way to tell if we haven't already been subjected to cloned meat without being told. I think it is just horrible. If they are going to do this and sell it, they should definately let us know. I most certainly would not buy it.

luvmykids replied: If they decide against labeling it I'll switch to homegrown, not my growing but I'll pay my friends who do it the extra to raise for me too.

Excuse me for being out of the loop, but why even clone beef? Is there a shortage of real cows or something?