Genetically Altered Animals & Cultured Meat

Please Note: This is an old blog post that I transferred here from a website of mine that I recently deleted. The original date of this post is September 7th, 2012. 

…This particular subject dawned upon me today, after re-reading a brief blog post that I wrote in the past (about 1.5 years ago) about the "Chupacabra – Goat Sucker" on a Myths, Legends, & Folklore Blogspot. While perusing over this old material, I was trying to not get hit broadside with folklore while I kicked the legends and pushed the myths far away. …This left me in a critical thinking mode, and I no longer needed some mythical creature as a focal point, as it was plain as day that we have our own genetically altered animals of today that beckons for a closer look. To make this even more troublesome, we got people trying to grow meat products in a laboratory, hence forth the “cultured meat” part of the title for this post.

Before I provide any related links and information about this subject, please get this simple word embedded into your brain, which is MONEY! Yep, the true culprit for these bizarre genetic experiments is about money, no matter what lovely reason of utter humanitarianism they try to feed you.

Anyway, the first article I’m about to link to, speaks about genetically modified animals.

It starts off by saying how it is a slow and tedious process that needs a lot of money to get off the ground. Oh, but ain’t the sole purpose of this to make a lot of money? Remember the old saying, “ya gotta spend money to make money.” Think about it: If you can grow meat in a lab along with animal-based organs for human transplant, wouldn’t that be a mega-money maker? Who cares about our health and/or if it is natural or how much antibiotics and growth hormones these “things” are pumped with or where it comes from, as if we can sell this crap in bulk, we got some rich folks in the making…

At any insane rate, after that article mentioned how this “genetically altered animals” stuff was a slow process, they went on to say: “Behind the scenes, though, a quiet revolution has been taking place. Thanks to a set of new tricks and tools, modifying animals is becoming a lot easier and more precise. That is not only going to transform research, it could also transform the meat and eggs you eat and the milk you drink.”

Toward the end of that page, they sort of spilled the beans by asking this question: So, in 20 years will GM (genetically modified) animals be as widespread as their botanic counterparts are now? “Technologically, nothing is standing in our way,” says Fahrenkrug. “Really, the issue is coming down to: what are you going to make?” You can read more about this, here: http://www.brainwaving.com/2010/07/28/genetically-modified-animals/

I think most of you will find that last article to be somewhat interesting, but not necessarily in a good way.

Hey, just think of the possibilities! Do you want a cool pet that glows in the dark? You want some cheap prime cuts of beef that was grown in a petri dish via not-so-natural methods? Yada-yada… They also tend to blame some of this type of research for the long journeys that space flights may have in the future, but I know that is one big load of baloney. I mean, NASA doesn’t have to provide their astronauts with a never-ending supply of lab-grown steaks, right? Get real…

I planned on covering more ground about the genetically altered animals, but I see (I sort of write as I go) that the main concern of mine at the moment, when concerning this subject, is this cultured meat stuff. I went to the glorious Wikipedia to get additional info and terms, and they seem to mainly call this junk “in vetro meat” but they mentioned how it is also called “cultured meat,” “laboratory-grown meat” and “shmeat” which is short for sheet meat, so go figure…

Back to NASA, Wikipedia states: “Modern research into ‘in vitro’ meat arose out of experiments conducted by NASA, attempting to find improved forms of long-term food for astronauts in space. The technique was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995, and NASA has been conducting experiments since 2001, producing ‘in vitro’ meat from turkey cells. The first edible form was produced by the NSR/Touro Applied BioScience Research Consortium in 2000: goldfish cells grown to resemble fish fillets.”

You know, in a way, I could say “good for y’all.” Personally, I don’t want Lab Meat that has to be pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics, just so they can mass produce it and make tons of money while neglecting our health risks. Yes, they have admitted to that, as well, and you can read about it, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat [link is no longer active, but as the years went by, it now re-directs to this URL with modified information, here: Cultured meat - Wikipedia]

To make a long complaint short, everything that man has done to the food that isn’t natural, has never been good. Artificial this, artificial that, chemical injection here, a word I can’t pronounce in the ingredient list there, etc. Hell, when you think about it, cakes, pies and “junk food” aren’t natural either [I can hear the moans now…], as I have never seen a twinkie or cupcake grow from the ground yet; ha! I’m not trying to come off as a technology hater, but some things need to be left to Mother Nature. It is hard enough now, to find quality meat & produce that hasn’t been totally abused by human input. The last thing we need right now is genetically altered animals and stupid cultured meat that was grown from a petri dish.

Maybe I’m the oddball here, but what do you think?

At times, a Petri Dish is best when it's empty...

Image Credit: perpendicularity.org/blog/ [link is no longer active]

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