Brainless Cows? The Horror....

The discussion of brainless cows really made me cringe in class today. I mentioned how much of our food is altered from its natural state and then continually reproduced in such a manner. As a student of science, I can usually find the necessary point of such research but in this case I cannot.

Background:
The era of genetically modified food started with 'Golden Rice' which was altered to carry the beta carotene gene. It was done to hopefully help stop childhood blindness and other ails because rice is so vastly consumed and this type of rice is relatively inexpensive to produce and make available for plantation. There are always concerns of GM foods cross contaminating non-GM foods as well as escaping into nature. This has occurred recently, as GM corn for cattle contaminated a shipment of corn for human consumption. I can't remember what the corn was made to do for the cows, but I am guessing it had more starch in it to fatten them up faster. It only caused concern when people who had eaten the corn had an allergic reaction to a specific protein added to the corn. An open question but, what if no one had an allergic reaction? If the corn somehow made it into nature, as with GM animals (like glowing bunnies, fish, pigs, and primates) the devastation it may cause is somewhat immeasurable because 1) we haven't experienced one yet but, 2) as with any foreign species introduced into a new environment it may completely take over the ecosystem, as with zebra mussels or purple heather.

I gave some examples of GM foods such as the tomato and roses that one would have no idea it was modified unless they had taken a course in botany. Tomatoes now contain far too many and incomplete 'locks' which are the folds in the fruit containing the seeds, (cucumbers also have this, it's the middle part) and many commercial roses are anatomically incorrect, lacking many reproductive parts making it necessary to cultivate them by clones from the mother plant.

Which brings me back to the original concern:
Scientists are presenting research to the FDA taking steps to allow cloned beef and other animal products on our shelves. Moving forward from this they are now researching 'brainless' cows. As we conversed in class, often the focus is the suffering of the animals instead of the act of killing them. I doubt that by somehow producing 'brainless' cows you will convince many vegetarians, let alone vegans, to begin consuming meat. The animals are alive, and then are butchered for food, which is the same regardless of whether they have a brain or not. This is where many vegetarians have the issue of eating meat; for me, even though I may like the taste (as shown in my example of my fake bacon - facon) I simply do not want to be responsible for the death of an animal so I may eat because I am able to biologically (and psychologically!) be content only eating plant foods, along with 100% organic milk and eggs (cage-free as well, of course) which does not harm the animal if cared for properly and is a completely natural function. Instead you are giving PETA another reason to go to the extremes to stop such research, when extremes are not the correct path either. Derek compared potential laws against meat consumption to Prohibition, which is entirely accurate. We cannot outlaw something, even if it's well intentioned, when the vast majority of people disagree with it in some way. Can you imagine if the production of meat went into underground operations? The Horror....