New York Times: Finally, a cogent editorial about cloned meat that sums up the critical points — “Cloning isn’t just a matter for the F.D.A. to decide. It is up to us as a society to decide as well. We should be asking much broader questions than the F.D.A. is able to. Who will cloning benefit? What will it do to the health of the animals themselves?”
Slate: William Saletan looks at all the anti-cloned-meat arguments point by point — and debunks them rather persuasively, we must say. Defintiely food for thought … but we still think this should be a public debate, not one decided by the FDA and the industry it purports to regulate (see above).
San Francisco Chronicle: An editorial about cloned meat quotes Michael Pollan explaining that it stops evolution — not a great idea for disease resistance.
New Zealand Herald: Researchers have found that a sizable percentage of sheep and cattle appear to be gay, or at least bisexual — starting from birth.
Scientific American: The author of a book on prion diseases weighs in on the USDA’s development of prion-free cattle. (Prions are the proteins that when misfolded, give rise to mad-cow disease.) Thankfully, he warns against the temptation to feed cattle to cattle, regardless of prions’ presence.
International Herald Tribune: The U.N. has lifted bans on the export of three types of Caspian caviar, which were necessary to protect the endangered sturgeon. The quotas have spawned a flourishing industry in farmed caviar.
Southwest Farm Press: Why at least one major grower thinks changes to the 2007 Farm Bill should be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Reuters: Gold Star Sausage Co. is recalling about 15,514 pounds of sausage products for possible listeria contamination. Some were produced Dec. 9. Now that’s an efficient recall system!
Wisegeek: The blog world is abuzz with this pictorial essay on what 200 calories looks like. Note: clicking on the photos shows them on the same plate, which is helpful for scale.
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