O.K. I did some research today on this and I must say- it doesn't look good for cloning.

One of things that has enabled the human race (and animals) to survive for thousands of years was the intermixing of genes based on natural selection & reproduction. When you clone an anmial (or person) the genes are staying the same, as in from the same 2 sources.
One of the ways that we have built up immunities to certain virii for instance, is because we have a constantly changing gene pool replenishing the race. When you limit the reproduction cycle to a subset of the gene pool, you may be setting yourself up for failure. I am doing more research on this and I suggest others do as well. ...

O.K. I did some research today on this and I must say- it doesn't look good for cloning.

One of things that has enabled the human race (and animals) to survive for thousands of years was the intermixing of genes based on natural selection & reproduction. When you clone an anmial (or person) the genes are staying the same, as in from the same 2 sources.
One of the ways that we have built up immunities to certain virii for instance, is because we have a constantly changing gene pool replenishing the race. When you limit the reproduction cycle to a subset of the gene pool, you may be setting yourself up for failure. I am doing more research on this and I suggest others do as well.
This may be another huge mistake by scientists.

A part of me wonders if the bee disappearance has something to do with genetically modified foods.

That would be like wondering if it was in relation to global warming, electromagnetic interference, etc.. we don't know.. so presenting it as an option is just fear mongering imo. I'm not saying that it's not a plausible idea, just that I haven't seen any science to support it,
However, it should be noted that mass bee disappearances have happened many times in the past, in 1975, honeybees mysteriously died off all over the US. They recovered.

Anyway, back on topic...

The thing I think we have to be careful of is the diversification of the biosphere... If we create these su...

A part of me wonders if the bee disappearance has something to do with genetically modified foods.

That would be like wondering if it was in relation to global warming, electromagnetic interference, etc.. we don't know.. so presenting it as an option is just fear mongering imo. I'm not saying that it's not a plausible idea, just that I haven't seen any science to support it,
However, it should be noted that mass bee disappearances have happened many times in the past, in 1975, honeybees mysteriously died off all over the US. They recovered.

Anyway, back on topic...

The thing I think we have to be careful of is the diversification of the biosphere... If we create these super plants/animals because they are the most diseases resistant, the most producing, etc, but we only have a few strains, then when a diseases comes around that can affect them, they have no other intermingles strains to pass genes with to try and fight the infections... That would be very devastating. Luckily, Sweden, or Norway, or someone like that (can't remember, too lazy to look) is making a great underground vault of all the plant species in the world.. I think the Smithsonian as similar deposits...

It would be nice not to have to rely in those however, but it is not profitable for farmers to grow strains of plants that aren't the most sought after. Short of legislating against the ability to use GM crops, there's no real solution that I can see...

BTW: we've been doing this for centuries, it is just recently however that we have been able to do it so precisely (instead of cross breeding/selective breeding, etc..) I'd be more worried about unforeseen effects of splicing genes from animal/plant species into each other...