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

[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.