How Does a Cow Fit in a Petri Dish?

I am a big fan of the scientists who spend their lives dedicated to research for the betterment of humanity. I read scientific material, listen to new discoveries explained by famous scientists on the radio, and I even obtain issues of Popular Science Magazine to enjoy in my free time. However, I recently read an article about scientists intermingling with our food, that really grosses me out.

I am already vehemently against the ways that animals are treated on the so-called "farms" of the Agri-Industry. I don't agree with the cramped living quarters, inhumane treatment and disease laden conditions in which they live. I also do not agree with the fact that these same "sick" animals end up on the plates of our nations' citizens. Yet to make matters worse, our government is in favor of taking it all one step further to create "fake" animals that will be considered nutritious and delicious fare.

With the Food and Drug Admistration ruling in January that milk and meat from cloned animals such as pigs, sheep and cows are safe to eat, the only real thing keeping them off your plate, is time.

It just so happens that the biotech industry has been diligently working for many years on cloning and growing meats such as beef and pork in petri dishes. So it won't be too long before these cloned meats hit the supermarket shelves. Plus, without any labeling restrictions in place by the FDA (they are against that sort of thing), the average consumer will not actually ever know if the meat they are eating is indeed cloned.

As it stands right now, our Government and the FDA are actually in favor of cloning animals, so it will only be a matter of time before this type of freakish activity is considered the norm. However, cloning the tastiest beef can cost upward of $14,000 a cow, which makes them way too expensive to eat according to today's prices. Although once these newly cloned animals have enough offspring for you to munch on, the prices for cloned beef will definitely become affordable.

While the average American seems to be against cloning food, they don't actually take the time to stop and think where their next meal might really be coming from. For, if they did, the fast food industry might definitely not be so popular. As a matter of fact, it might not even exist any longer. For example: what if you really knew what a hot dog was made of? Would you still eat it? Or, what if you became aware that the meal you just purchased from McDonald's didn't exactly contain all of the "healthy" ingredients you thought it did? Or, what if you found out exactly how many carcinogenic chemicals were added to your fast meal just to keep it "fresh" and looking good? Most people really don't want to think about these things. They are good at using the 'I don't want to know' mentality.

Well, that same mentality is going to move cloned beef right into your dining room. Not only that, but while the food industry waits for the cloned cows to come down in price, scientists are hard at work "improving" other ingredients you just might add to your next hamburger. These include: "cruelty free" bacon grown from the stem cells of pigs combined with water, glucose and amino acids; bacterial genes added to cheddar cheese eliminating the bitter taste that comes with the ripening process; breeding a tomato that is sweeter, yet less nutritious than those grown today so that ketchup can keep its sweet flavor; and splicing rat genes into lettuce so that it contains more vitamin C.

So when did food get so complicated? I mean, if the giant biotech industry gets its way, ordering your next hamburger may go something like this, "one charbroiled cloned-beef patty, with genetically modified cheese, lab-grown bacon, and vitamin c fortified lettuce on a protein-spiked bun." Sounds delicious, doesn't it?