As Milk Prices Sour, Cows Head to Slaughter

(NEWSER) - A 5-year, $53 million project has resulted in the sequencing of the cow genome, the Houston Chronicle reports. The results will likely take the guesswork out of breeding, but also mark the end of big-money sequencing projects. “It was pretty dumb to do the cow for $50 million when the cost will go down to $5,000 in a year or two,” a researcher said. More»

And, not surprisingly, their milk is quite pricey

(NEWSER) - After you've helped convince women to spend $575 on a single pair of shoes, why not move on to very expensive milk? That's what George Malkemus and Tony Yurgaitis, Manolo Blahnik's top two executives, are doing. Milk from their Connecticut farm, Arethusa, sells for $4.49 per half-gallon—more than twice the national average—at Whole Foods and other stores. The Wall Street Journal offers an amusing glimpse into the lives of the pair's 350 cows, which eat only the finest hay, rest on Canadian wood shavings, and get vacuumed daily in a spa-like setting. More»

Genetic engineers in China face criticism from health, animal advocates

(NEWSER) - Scientists in China have genetically altered some 300 cows to produce "human" milk, the Telegraph reports. Using cloning techniques, scientists inserted human genes into cow embryos and implanted the embryos in mother cows. Scientists say the resulting dairy cows produced milk with "much higher nutritional content" than regular cow’s milk, including extra fat as well as proteins that support the immune system—meaning it could be an alternative to formula for babies. More»

Production costs could make it the 'caviar of the future'

(NEWSER) - You might want to have a hamburger while you can—beef is likely to become as pricey and exclusive as caviar over the next 40 years, predicts a UN agriculture expert. The production costs of raising cows, especially for water, are just too high to accommodate inexorable rises in world population and the hunger for beef, said Henning Steinfeld of the Food and Agriculture Organization. More»

Pasture-raised version of other, other white meat draws new fans

(NEWSER) - Some conscientious objectors to eating veal are not only reconsidering their stance, they are doing an about-face. The new hot product at top restaurants is “humanely raised” veal—calves no longer wrenched from their mothers and raised in cages, but brought to slaughter after an idyllic, if short, life at pasture. It's more ethical to eat it than not, the argument goes, since farmers can't afford to raise most male dairy calves. “It’s a resource that needs to be utilized,” one tells the Washington Post. More»