The State of Cloned Animals Food in 2050 - Coursework Example

The of cloned animal’s food in 2050: Today we are living in a world that isfacing numerous problems like poverty, hunger, lack of jobs, mental illnesses, war, terror etc. In short world is not at peace and no one has a magic wand to solve these problems. A man’s life is so disturbed in today’s world that he does not know what to do and where to go. Although all the problems mentioned above are huge and are related directly or indirectly to each other. For example if a person has no job he will have less or nothing to eat and this will make him angry and mentally disturbed. Only a well fed person is able to think in a positive way as the Roman poet Juvinal says: “A healthy mind in a healthy body” It means sustenance is indeed one of the huge problems among all the problems of the world. World population is increasing day by day and will continue to increase in the coming years. Even now a days it is difficult to provide food for all the human beings living in this world which makes us think what is going to happen after 40 years when world population will double and agricultural lands will be used to build houses, in such conditions when there will be no lands available for cultivation then from where will the food come from? Lifestyle will be completely different in 2050 and so will the needs and demands of the people. Farming will be different and new technologies will be put into practice by then. We cannot imagine how life would be in 2050 and people born in 2050 cannot imagine the world of today. To overcome the problems in future we must plan today and suggest ideas for a better future. Without a clear vision nothing can be achieved. We can’t just keep doing things in future like the way we are doing them today for who knows it will help us to survive in 2050? Coming back to the problem of hunger we need to think if whatever we are doing now is not enough to feed the people will it be enough to fulfill the needs in future when population will double and is expected to increase by 2.5 billion by 2050. The answer to this is NO which means that change is necessary (Back to the Future: Small Farms in the Year 2050, John Ikerd) Extensive research and studies has helped to design technologies according to the needs of the people. One such technology is cloning which has provided desirable and beneficial products. The idea of cloned foods is not very old cloning has been used successfully to obtain food from animals. Cloning of animals is usually achieved through a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The first animal to be cloned successfully was Dolly the sheep which was created in 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. The process of cloning involves the following steps: 1: Nucleus of an unfertilized egg is destroyed in host animal. 2: This nucleus is replaced with the nucleus obtained from the body of another animal and the egg is said to be fertilized. 3: The fertilized egg is planted into the womb of the host animal. By using this technique a baby with identical genetic characters will be produced. With the advancement in this technology particularly in farm animals meat and dairy products can be increased and scientists believe that cloning will overcome the problem of shortage of food in the mid 21st century if applied correctly. However cloning is a very expensive process and cattle cloned cannot simply be raised to be slaughtered but instead the cloned animals will be raised to produce off springs which can be used in food production. The meat and milk produced from cloned cattle will definitely increase the food supply and when a cloned animal reaches to such an age that it is no longer able to produce then in that case they will be slaughtered to get more meat from them. Cloned foods are already being used worldwide but, there are certain issues related to the consumption of meat and milk obtained from cloned animals. Food and drug administration FDA is playing significant role to resolve these issues by convincing people that cloned foods are safe to consumers have a shown a strong dislike towards cloned foods so, certain steps must be taken before this refusal to consume cloned foods increases. Although food obtained from cloned animals is quite safe to eat but, it has been noticed that cloned animals get sick more often compared to animals that are born naturally. When they get sicker they are likely to receive antibiotics which will appear in the food. These abnormalities raise concern that whether cloning technology should be used for food production or not. Even a small imbalance in clone’s protein can affect the quality of food. If entire herds are cloned biodiversity of livestock will be reduced and the entire herd will be susceptible to a disease during outbreak. Besides several controversies cloning of livestock is being used to obtain the most nutritious meat. If healthiest animals are used to produce a clone it will minimize the use of antibiotic since, clones produced from healthy animals are less likely to get sick. As variety of food is available in bulk in most part of the world these days therefore many people have raised issues against cloned foods but, in 2050 drastic changes will occur and people will have to accept the cloning technology and the benefits it provide because it is going to play a major role to increase the food supply according to the needs of the people. (Cloned food ok by FDA) The demand of artificial meat and food products will increase in 2050 in order to feed the 9 billion people and save them from starving. All the advanced technologies are very expensive and needs research to avoid the technical drawbacks so; there might be a chance that people in 2050 still have to live with empty stomachs. Although crop varieties will be produced but the major source of protein is meat so main focus will be to increase the production of meat in 2050. Major steps can be achieved with the application of advanced technologies like cloning to increase the food yield in order to cope with the food requirements and the upcoming challenges. (Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050) The information provided by The Food and Drug administration FDA is not enough to satisfy people to consume food obtained from cloned animals. Cloned food is continuously under criticism and FDA is facing difficulties to convince people but, this organization is doing its best to show the positive picture of cloned foods to the world. According to FDA the meat and milk obtained from cloned animals is exactly similar to the meat and milk that we consume everyday which suggests that there is no issue with cloned foods only the public has to realize it that under such conditions when there is going to be shortage in the food supply they should make use of the possible options rather than raising issues against it or avoiding it. Cloning does not change the gene sequence but copies the exact sequence from the donor. Cloning of animals is a new technology and will be used more in future to fulfill the food requirements. Many stores worldwide are selling cloned food obtained from animals. Now is time to remove the issues of people and to do to work in order to launch cloned food in market. There is no urgency to display these products when there are plenty of other options available. Scientists should try to remove all those errors that are creating hindrances for the cloned foods to achieve a better market place in future because the world will depend solely on technologies in the year 2050. (Animal clones approved for human food) Cloning is a challenging technology that will have to compete with all other technologies in order to leave its impact on people. Scientists believe that they need to keep an open mind on new technologies and understand their benefits before rejecting them. Meat and milk obtained from cloned animals are considered as novel foods. Demand for meat and dairy products is growing day by day in most of the developing countries by 2050 meat consumption will increase to around 45kg per person. To meet such a high demand cloning is a better option and people need to accept the advanced technologies more quickly otherwise it will create problems in future. No matter how the process cost once it is appreciated the demand for cloned foods will increase and so will the market value. (Cloning of farmed animals) The only way to definitely avoid food from cloned animals is to buy organic products but, there are not many people who can afford to consume organic foods in their everyday life because it is just too costly and since agricultural lands will be less by 2050 organic foods will not be enough to feed the people so other option will be considered as well. By that time consumers and producers both will become more comfortable with the idea of cloned foods in a similar manner they have accepted genetically modified crops only they need some time to let it sink in. Food companies are also cautious about new technologies and they will go for the one that will help them increase their market value or that is economically feasible or maybe for that one that will attract more consumers. (Offspring of cloned meat making its way into US food supply) The main potential benefit that the farmers could get from cloning is that they will be able to breed from the best animals like animals that are more resistant to disease. In this way resistant varieties can be obtained which will be more productive and will provide better quality of meat. By using this technique resistant breeds can also be conserved by which farmers would be able to provide better quality of meat and better dairy products for many years. Considering the shortage of food in 2050 it is not a good idea to depend only on one source of food but, different options must be considered simultaneously to overcome this huge problem. For example if a large percentage of a nation’s cattle were cloned and if unfortunately an outbreak occur it will destroy the entire population within no time and naturally the result would be catastrophic food shortage in that nation.(Cloning of farmed animals) Food obtained from cloned animals is sold by few stores these days and is likely to hit the markets worldwide within two years. This technology is already widespread and there is a fat chance that it can be stopped now that it has already revealed its benefits. In 2050 consumers will be eating meat and milk from cloned animals routinely without even realizing it. “Cloned food involves producing identical copies of plants and foods that have some inherent advantage, such as disease resistance, so the spread of such foods should be in the public interest. I think the real issue is whether or not the public can be persuaded of the advantages of cloned foods rather than questioning its safety” (Pennington, food scientist) Cloning of animals if continued in future will expand the population of cattle which means more food in the form of meat and dairy products. Steps must be taken to convince people how beneficial this technology is as population will double by the mid 21st century most of the population will rely on artificial food products like organic foods but, since it is costly and not everyone can afford to eat it so there is a possibility that cloned foods might be able to gain popularity by 2050. Modern methods of farming will be applied in future in order to meet the nutritional requirements of a huge population. (The cloned food conundrum) Work cited: “Animal clones approved for human food”. 2008.Environment News service. 2011. Web http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-15-02.html “Cloned food ok by FDA”.Weekly Wellness. 2003.Wired.com.2011.Web http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2003/10/61038 “Cloning of farmed animals”. Department for environment food and rural affairs.2011.Defra.dov.uk.2011.Web http://www.defra.gov.uk/food-farm/animals/cloning/ Ikerd, John. “Back to the Future: Small Farms in the Year 2050”.n.p.n.d.Web.missouri.edu.2011.Web http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Oklahoma%20-%20Langston%20-Back%20to%20the%20Future.htm “Offspring of cloned meat making its way into U.S food supply”. November 13, 2009. Reuters.2011.Web http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,574867,00.html “The cloned food Conundrum”. Food Processing-Technology.21 October 2010.Foodprocessing-technology.com.2011.Web http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/features/feature98999/ Vidal, John. “Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050”. 2010.The Guardian. 2011.Web http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/artificial-meat-food-royal-society Read More