Against cloned beef
Thursday January 24, 2008
Categories: Food
I'm with Verlyn Klinkenborg: who, exactly, benefits from screwing around with livestock genetics like this? Is the further industrialization of our food production really the way we ought to be going? Klinkenborg says: To me, this striving for uniformity is...
Filed Under: Cloned beef
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Great, great book, Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm not so sure the way our farm and energy and environmental policies have focused on corn is a good idea at all, quite apart from the genetic issues. First, corn syrup finding its way into everything is deadly. Deadly. Worse for a metabolism than sugar. Go read product labels at your local supermarket, and you'll be shocked to see what corn syrup is in -- ostensibly healthy multi-grain breads, bran flakes, etc etc. Second, corn is a staple food in many cultures, and by using it for ethanol (as well as bread! What a stupid idea) we're driving up the price of many poor people's basic necessities. Third, imho ethanol won't do jack for the environment; it's a sop to midwestern farmers (and I'm a midwest native) and a way to be falsely green.
Listened to this with my wife and son on a trip to Boston. Its not just another vegetarian is better book. Having worked on my grandfather's and uncle's farms during the summers while growing up in southern Indiana I miss those eggs and the chickens that tasted like real chicken he talks about.
Steve
If one's concern is with genetic variety, we might want to consider saving genetic samples from various species & breeds of livestock. Sort of like a seed bank for animals. Even with monocultures dominating agriculture, we still retain samples of other crops:
www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-08/2007-08-28-voa39.cfm
This probably wouldn't address the vulnerability of cloned livestock herds to diseases. It would help with the recovery, however.
I hope to hear more from you on Pollan-- he says everything I want to see get out about our food chain. Verlyn is right here too, though in some ways a more conventional NYTimeser.
Genetic diversity in dogs and other domestic animals-- and what the AKC and such do to stifle it-- is a constant theme at my Querencia blog, as is the Omnivore's dilemma.
Is your backyard big enough for a dog? Then it is big enough for some chickens...
It better be labled so I can refuse to buy it. I don't buy hormone adulterated milk either. I wrote letters hoping the FDA would shoot this BS down, but alas.
The USDA has asked farmers to refrain from using clones at this time. They think the public will "get over it" (resistance) eventually.
I've been in the natural/organic food business since 1981 and it has not ever been our experience that people "get over" being freaked out about bizarrely concocted foodstuff after they wake up the realities of modern production systems.
After you finish The Omnivore's Dilemma, pick up Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto. He answers some of the questions that people wrote him with after finishing the dilemma.
If you really want to upset the gummit and big bidness, get as much of your food from your garden or directly from the producer as is possible for you. There is this idea out there that consumers are willing to march along in lock step, eating whatever the big guys decide is good for their bottom line.
Elizabeth, as you may or may not know, the Orthodox require a vegan fast during Lent. Last year was my first Odox Lent, and I only fasted from meat. This year, I'm going to do the true fast. I'm working on a project to start on the Dallas Morning News website a blog that will last only the 40 days of Odox Lent, and which will feature my daily writing about meatless living. I expect to spend a lot of time talking about Pollan's book and broader issues of the American diet, morality and spirituality (it *is* Lent, after all). If I can put it all together, I'll of course let everyone here know about it.
I can't see where it matters. The process by which the beef is born is pretty irrelevant to how it tastes when it is turned into steak.
I'm with Irenaeus on corn syrup.
All you 'refuseniks' better not have ever eaten a seedless orange (or grape, or watermelon, etc.) - ALL the results of genetic modifications.
There's no way I would do a stint at veganism - I'd gain back all the weight I've lost. I'm convinced that genetically, I'm programmed to eat meat, dairy, and vegetables.
Nice to know that before long, someone will stride into your neighborhood deli, order a "cloned beef" sandwich - and not be mistaken for an Engrish-speaking tourist...
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