2-World Hunger

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Potential Solution #1: Food Cloning

The Cloning Process of Meats (thanks to http://www.iptv.org/exploremore/ge/what/clone.cfm#5 ):

A Technique called nuclear transfer is used when cloning animals. Due to food not having egg cells and the meat is not living. An animal on the other hand has egg cells and normal cells which can be combined to make a fertilized egg. The process below is mainly for sheep, but I would guess that it could work for other creatures as well.

1. Isolate the nucleus from a somatic (non-reproductive) cell of an adult donor. The nucleus contains the complete genetic material of the organism. This step is repeated many times to gather many cell nuclei. A very small needle and syringe (suction device) is used to poke through the cell membrane to capture the nucleus and remove it from the cell.

2. Retrieve unfertilized egg cells (reproductive) from a female. Many eggs are needed since not all of them will survive the various steps of cloning.

3. Remove the egg cell's nucleus, which contains only one-half of the creature's genetic material. A very small needle and syringe (suction device) is used to poke through the cell membrane to capture the nucleus and remove it from the cell.

4. Insert the nucleus, with its complete genetic material, isolated from the donor mammal in Step 1 into the egg cell that has no nuclear material. The egg's genetic material now contains all traits from the donor adult. This egg is genetically identical to the donor adult.

5. Place the egg into a female creature's womb, a surrogate mother. Only a small percentage of eggs placed in the womb will start to mature. Those eggs that survive will continue to develop into embryos. The egg matures in the womb. When the offspring is born, it is a clone (genetically identical) of the donor sheep.
 
 
The Pros and The Cons:

Pros:

  • Cloning of plants and animals can be vital to survival. If a certain plant or animal or even human is dying, a clone can be created and be used as a donor to save that plant, or animal, or human. So if a young African child or an adult is in need of a vital human organ, a donor won’t have to worry about donating his organ, but he/she can be cloned and the clone could donate. People would not have to be on a waiting list for too long a time, you could get an organ very quickly and be in less pain.
  • Cloning animals can lead to the end of world hunger as we know it, because cloning food has been mentioned safe by the FDA so there are no potential differences except for the fact that it was made by science. If these animals are cloned, then the meat from the animal can be used to feed the people that need it. Also endangered animals would no longer be endangered due to the fact that they could be reproduced massively, so that extinction may no longer occur.
  • Genetically altering plants and animals can lead to disease resistant organisms. Cows that are resistant to mad cow, plants that are resistant to pesticides and other harmful toxins and can grow to be a sort of super breed of plants and animals that will ultimately be healthier for us.

Cons:

  • Throughout the world, this process is being protested by people who believe that the idea of, “playing God,” is wrong and should not be done. They believe that creating artificial life is inhumane.
  • Making resistant plants and animals can make the predators of the earth such as bugs and other animals. If plants are made resistant to pesticides and made stronger and resistant, birds and insects would not have that much food to eat.
  • Genetically altering animals and cloning is very very costly. Costs for equipment and chemicals and labs cost a very large amount of tax payers and donors money.
 
1. Take a leaf from a plant.
2. Clean the leaf of contaminating microorganisms, fungal spores, small insects or whoever might be on board.
3. The leaf is then cut into small pieces in a laminar flow hood that provides a clean working surface. The small pieces of plant tissue that are cut out of the leaf are called explants. Below you can see what they look like.
4. The explants are then placed on a chemical medium that provides nutrients for the plant tissues to grow and usually some plant hormones to encourage development of new organs from the plant tissue. Below is an explant that has been placed on a chemical medium inside a test tube.
Explant looks something like this:
5. From this explant, new shoots would start to develop. Before they were obvious to you, as they just started to develop, they would look like this with the scanning electron microscope.
6. After six to eight weeks, the explant will develop new shoots.
7. These shoots may be cut free from the explant, and placed in a larger container on a new medium that will help roots to develop.
8. The rooted plant can then be transferred to soil. At this stage, the humidity must be kept high until the plant can adjust to the new surroundings. This process of adjustment is called acclimatization, and involves the growth of new leaves that will function in the less humid room air.
9. The cover is slowly opened more and more over a two week period so that the plant can gradually adjust.
From one plant, hundreds more can be produced. Since plants are genetically identical they share flowering times and developmental ages. So it is easier to care for the plants because they are growing at the same rate and in a similar way.
 
Subpages (1): Potential Solution #2: High Protein Food Mixture