Chicken Genome Sequenced

Jonmann writes "The chicken (Gallus gallus) genome has been sequenced by the International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The new genome map provides new, more detailed clues as to how birds diverged from mammals in the course of evolution." I, for one, welcome our new 5-foot-tall, all-white-meat, pre-coated-with-tasty-batter chicken overlords.

Comments

Re:5-foot-tall overlords

[bcattwoo]

you can eat meat without the animals having to live unpleasent cruel lives

I feel the same way. The lives these farm raised animals live bothers me more than they have to die for my consumption. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I can't see cutting it out completely.

It confuses me when fellow meat eaters are repulsed by hunting, even if the hunter plans on eating his kill. Seems to me a free life cut short by a swift death is preferrable to short life crammed in a cage. I had a suitemate in college who didn't eat meat but would eat eggs. He didn't seem to realize that the enslaved chicken whose eggs he was eating was going to end up just as dead and be eaten by either another person or farm animal.

Re:5-foot-tall overlords

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you can always raise your own or buy livestock and kill them yourself. I like meat and wouldn't mind having to kill it myself. I've severely reduced my meat intake due to the factory farms feeding all that antibiotics, hormones, and starlink feed.

I only buy organic eggs(The shells are thicker - anyone else noticed that there's no longer any grade AAA eggs and only grade AA eggs in the supermakets since the mid to late nineties) and chickens. Most of my beef are from Niman Ranch. I buy lamb, since that's not really a big industry so they're not quite up to gigantic factory farms. I blame McDonalds and people who buy that swill for the decline in our food quality. I also blame the Corporate stooges in government for allowing the vast consolidation that allows the horrendous factory farms to exist. Corporations are not responsible to people. Corporations are only responsible to their bottom line.

There are places that sell livestock, but public transportation doesn't allow it and most North Americans in the big cities are too squeemish. A friend who was riding SF Muni saw an old Asian woman try to bring a chicken on a Bus and the driver wouldn't let her board because the chicken was still breathing. After a short argument, the woman just grabbed the chicken on by the neck and twisted. Well, now that it was just plain poultry, she was allowed on the bus.

If I lived closer to an area that allowed hunting, I'd probably go once a year. I know eating meat means killing, but I'm ok with that. That's what food is about. I'd even use a bow instead of a rifle. I don't believe in going vegan, but I definitely understand the choice people make. Too many urban dwellers just forget where their food comes from. Fish is served as a fillet or a steak in resturaunts. Asian restaurants at least leave the head - which many urbanites seem to be squeemish about. Most of the vegans I know seem to have become vegans after finding out about factory farms. A few of them, mostly younger ones, seem to have become vegan after seeing movies like Babe and realizing where pork came from.

Re:5-foot-tall overlords

[hal9000]

"There are also environmental consequences to being a vegetarian/vegan (though minimized or eliminated if you grow your own without using pesticides and chemical fertilizers)."

Most serious vegetarians are aware of this. I don't see how it stands as an argument against vegetarianism though. There is no such thing as a diet with zero footprint on the environment. But in general, for those of us living in the modern world who get food from modern sources, a true vegetarian diet is better on the environment than an omnivorous one.

"If everyone was vegan on an overpopulated planet, we'd turn the place into a dustball pretty quick too."

How do you mean? People eat meat that comes from herbivorous and omnivorous animals that have to be fed. It's more efficient for people to eat the crops directly. Anyway, in reality, there is obviously no danger of everyone on Earth suddenly becoming vegetarian.

"I choose to assume responsibility for what I am. Omnivorous. I eat what's available."

Appeal to nature. Societal pressures have us go against "what we are" (our genes) all the time. Someone who is hot tempered has no more right than anyone else to assault a person.