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After five years of study, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that food from cloned animals is safe to eat. Some consumer organizations, however, remain uneasy about the decision and are calling for an examination of the ethical aspects of cloning. While their concerns are understandable, they fail to take into account the potential environmental benefits of cloning, especially for developing countries. For example, anticipated impacts of climate change are likely to have far-reaching implications for the livestock industries of poor nations, especially those in Africa. |
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Adapting to such disruptions will require additional investments in technological innovation, including animal cloning for food and conservation. Africa's farming systems are already under stress. Cattle breeds resistant to diseases such as sleeping sickness are dwindling at an alarming rate as local farmers adopt larger zebu breeds to replace their hardier but smaller taurine relatives. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly 1,500, or 30%, of livestock breeds are threatened with extinction, most of which are in developing countries. Less than 100 are currently being conserved. Ecological disruption is likely to accelerate such trends. Slowing the decline will require the use of |
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reproductive techniques such as animal cloning for predictable livestock production, in addition to expanded breeding conservation programmes. Scientists are hoping to use cloning to save threatened species such as Vietnam's saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), gaur (Bos gaurus) and banteng (Bos javanicus) and the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee). |
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In bio-based formulations, vegetable oils replace a mineral oil as the base, which is typically 90% of a lubricant. Fatty acids make vegetable oils naturally more slippery than mineral oils, and their polar molecules make them stick to metal surfaces better, says Fu Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. Cost-competitive bio-based products for select applications are already available on store shelves. Most big lubricant manufacturers, including Shell, Exxon/Mobil, and BP, offer their own bio-based products containing different percentages of vegetable oil, but these |
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companies focus on their petroleum-based products According to Lou Honary (NABL university), a key to better-performing yet low-priced bio-based lubricants is creating genetically modified oils that give required properties without the cost of additives or chemical modifications. The NABL already uses modified soybeans composed of more than 80% oleic acid, compared with regular soybeans that have 20%. Oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, has only one double bond between carbon atoms, and this makes it more resistant to oxygen. “Why not |
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have a genetic variety of soybean that could work down to –50 °C? Then you could go into aviation hydraulics,” Honary says. Hence the future is bright and green. |




