H.S. For Sunday 011308

Cloned Food To Be Approved

Hey folks,

According to the AFP / The Wall Street Journal on Friday Jan 4, 2007, in cased you missed it, the FDA is about to approve cloned food.

The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring safe to eat as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

I’ve been waiting to see if it is announced that they have, but I have not seen it yet. This really bothers me. We do not know that it is safe. We do not have any long term evidence of it’s effect on the human body. Nothing. Back on December 26, 2006 I posted Cloned Food. Do You Want To Know? In that I talked about an Boston.com story that said this was already a done deal. According to Boston.com THEN.

"WASHINGTON --Federal scientists have concluded there is no difference between food from cloned animals and food from conventional livestock, setting the stage for the government to declare Thursday that cloned animals are safe for the human food supply.

The Food and Drug Administration planned to brief industry groups in advance of an announcement. The agency indicated it would approve cloned livestock in a scientific journal article published online earlier this month.

The agency "concludes that meat and milk from clones and their progeny is as safe to eat as corresponding products derived from animals produced using contemporary agricultural practices," FDA scientists Larisa Rudenko and John C. Matheson wrote in the Jan. 1 issue of Theriogenology."

I said this.

So you are telling me that there is no difference? What about the sped up growth? What effect will this process have on those consuming the meat? Drinking the milk? Already you can see the difference in our kids maturing faster than ever, some blame the milk and hormones along with other preservatives in food NOW. What happens when they start eating cloned meat?

It was an honest question then, even more so now. Back to the AFP

The federal agency decision would come after more than six years of deliberation on the issue, the newspaper said, without naming its sources.

FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings told AFP that the food agency "is still working to finalize our risk assessment activities" and that it could not say when the process would be complete.

I sure hope so.

The FDA ruled in 2006 that milk and meat from cloned cattle, swine and goats were no different from healthy, conventionally bred animals, but has asked producers not to sell products from cloned animals pending a safety ruling.

As I told you.

It previously described cloning as a more advanced form of breeding technology already used in the cattle industry, such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization, the Journal said.

No it isn’t. NONE of those include the injection of Spend up Growth drugs, all the chemical and other manipulation that they MUST use to clone. It is NOT the same thing. We do NOT know, as Ms. Kimberly Rawlings just told you.

Even if the agency does approve such products, it could be three to five years before US consumers see milk and meat from offspring of cloned animals on store shelves, the newspaper said.

It said that because cloned cattle cost 15,000 to 20,000 dollars per copy, most cloned animals would be used for breeding.

A green light from the FDA would be a milestone for biotech companies that want to center their business on producing copies of prize dairy cows and other farm animals, it added.

Meat or dairy products from cloned animals or their offspring would however likely face deep-seated opposition from consumers groups, some of whom still routinely refer to foods such as genetically-modified corn as "Frankenfood."

"Most consumers do not find this appealing," the paper quoted Marguerite Copel, from Dean Foods Co., one of the top US milk producers, as saying, adding that the company would not sell milk from cloned animals.

Good, then I would be buying from companies like them. I agree, we already have "Frankenfood." and we already have sides effects. Do you REALLY want to eat cloned meat?

The paper said consumer wariness could also lead to a backlash from opponents in US Congress and markets such as the European Union over concerns that it is too early to say for sure if food from cloned animals is safe.

Yes but here is the problem. Some do not even WANT you to KNOW what you are eating. Remember this?

"Consumers are going to be having a product that has potential safety issues and has a whole load of ethical issues tied to it, without any labeling," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety.

They do not even want to tell you the food is cloned. Get this.

Further concerns center on the higher number of health problems that cloned animals tend to experience at birth, compared to conventionally-bred animals.

The US food industry was divided on the issue, the paper said, with some big food companies saying they are not interested in products from cloned animals or their offspring, while others are actively exploring the possibilities.

Some in the meat industry consider that consumers would come to prefer products from cloned animals, given leaner and larger cuts of meat, it said.

"These animals are not some kind of freaks of nature," James Hodges, president of The American Meat Institute Foundation told the newspaper.

No, they are freaks of man. THAT is the point.

The European Food Safety Authority, the European Union's equivalent of the FDA, would likely deliver its own initial assessment on food from cloned animals next week, but a final decision was not expected for months, it added.

Regulators in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Japan and New Zealand, which already have livestock clones, although they rarely enter the food chain, would be closely watching the FDA decision, the paper said.

This is scary to me at least. I do not know about you, but I have no desire to become a live experiment on the effects of man-made meat. I do not want to eat, drink, or partake of anything of the MANATURE. {Man made Nature} I most DEFINITELY want to know if what I’m about to buy is cloned.
Peter

Sources:
OPNTalk - Cloned Food. Do You Want To Know?
Boston.com - FDA set to OK food from cloned animals
AFP - US regulators set to approve cloned meat, milk: report