by Claudia Brunson

news editor

Recently, leaders at Millsaps College, including President Pearigen and Director of Food and Dining Services Susan Williams, let the campus know they are satisfied with the impact and cost savings that offering cloned meat in the Caf has had on campus.

At the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic school year, Millsaps College signed a new deal with Aramark that included its partnership with a company that is able to genetically clone various animals, process them, and ship them off to numerous school cafeterias such as Millsaps. The United States Food and Drink Cloning Agency, which is located in Chester, Pennsylvania, is able to proficiently offer these cloned meats at a greatly reduced price, which is what attracted Millsaps College to this agreement.

“One vital component to the cloned meat is that students are not even able to tell that the meat that they are consuming did not come from a real animal,” Williams said. “Although these cloned meats might lack all vital key nutrients, I have heard nothing but positive feedback from the a majority of students and faculty.”

The major success story of the cloned meat has prompted Millsaps to sign a contract to continue to provide cloned meat to the students through next year.

“Millsaps has really had to cut down on spending over the past couple of years,” Pearigen said. “With the new agreement between Aramark and The United States Food and Drink Cloning Agency, we have been able to put our money into investments that the school desperately needs, such as building a new weight room and track for our track and field athletes.”

Although the majority of students did not know about the cloned meat in the Caf’, the selective students that were aware of this new change are in full support of the school’s decision.

“Honestly, I have no problem with the genetically cloned meat,” junior Joshua Jones said. “I cannot even tell the difference, which is what I was concerned with at first. I eat in the Caf every day and I am totally satisfied.”

Leaders at Millsaps are hoping that the revealing of cloned meat does not upset or anger students. The school hopes that students can understand that tuition dollars are well spent to meet their needs and desires. By reducing the amount of money that the Caf’ invests in food the school is able to invest in overall beautification project for the school.

“I do think that some students might have an increasing concern about what they are eating, but I do not think they should be worried,” Williams said. “There are no serious health risks that come from eating this cloned meat. Students at Millsaps are young enough that their bodies are able to adapt and replace the vital key proteins and nutrients that usually would come from real and natural meat.”

The consumption of cloned meat throughout schools in the United States of American is a fairly new trend that Millsaps believes could help effectively make the experience on campus better for all students.