FDA Ruling Seen as Imminent - FDA says OK to cloned food

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100502074_pf.html

Clone-Generated Milk, Meat May Be Approved
Favorable FDA Ruling Seen as Imminent

By Justin Gillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 6, 2005; A01

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule soon that milk from cloned animals and meat from their offspring are safe to eat, raising the question of whether Americans are ready to welcome one of modern biology's most controversial achievements to the dinner table.

Hundreds of cloned pigs, cows and other animals are already living on farms around the country, as companies and livestock producers experiment and await a decision from the FDA.

The agricultural industry has observed a voluntary FDA moratorium on using the products of clones, but it has recently become clear that a few offspring of cloned pigs and cows are already trickling into the food supply. Many in agriculture believe such genetic copies are the next logical step in improving the nation's livestock.

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they are going to fight labeling them as such, because people will not buy this if they can help it.

making clones of plants, animals, humans, rocks, nothing until we learn to do better with the original models we don't need clones.

But that's just me. I especially don't want cloned food. Thank you very much.

as the more polluting farmers (who have contributed to the death of the gulf of mexico) are bitching it's unfair. organic stuff is more expensive, and healthier and people are making a good choice, so the govt, of course, wants to stop em.
disgusting.

Your GNU (Government Nutrition Unit) has been carefully cloned, nurtured in a sea of petrochemical and recycled waste-product fertilizers, protected from insects by Billowing Clouds of Toxic Gas, harvested by underpaid "illegal" immigrants, Irradiated by "reclaimed" nuclear waste to kill any EVIL pathogens, and then ENHANCED with artificial flavorings and colors.*

Bon Apetit !


* Your Beloved BushCo Brand Federal Government "guarantees" that all your GNUs are "organic" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) so eat up without FEAR.

I surely do not want my family eating cloned food.

factor" involved because most people don't want their families eating cloned anything.

My understanding is that it's a copy so it wouldn't be any different than the food we currently have.

Just hold the question for a couple of weeks, and contemplate the issue.

In the traditional way of this North America continent, whenever we consider such important questions, we always factor in the Seventh Generation. That is to say, it is traditional to consider the impact of our decisions on our children's children's children, unto the Seventh Generation. When we know our actions will benefit them, we proceed in good conscience.

As for me, I have thoroughly examined the Corporate Chemical Genetically Mutant Clone Food System for decades. I reject thier "food products." I choose instead clean, wholesome, natural foods, preferably grown locally. I want my descendants to have clean food also.

I haven't read anything that even come closes to saying cloned food is a bad thing.

Cloned food sounds really scary, don't it? It sure would be nice if people would stop being afraid of the wrong things.

of voices to consider.

Here's one report, mainly on GE food, but you can extend it to cover clones as well.

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/fao-cn.htm

As for me, I trust the earth to give me a healthy bounty of clean food out of basic healthy soil and sensible cultural practices. I disapprove of the profit motivation as a way to insure clean food. Farming is a way of life, or at least it is best when it is a way of life. When farming becomes a profit-making enterprise, many distortions creep into the chain. In my view, cloning and GE alterations, motivated by profit, are highly suspect.

Yet mounting scientific evidence suggests there is little cause for alarm, at least on food-safety grounds. Studies have shown that meat and milk from clones can't be distinguished from that of normal animals, although work is not complete and researchers say that clones do suffer subtle genetic abnormalities.

Yet mounting scientific evidence suggests there is little cause for alarm, at least on food-safety grounds. Studies have shown that meat and milk from clones can't be distinguished from that of normal animals, although work is not complete and researchers say that clones do suffer subtle genetic abnormalities.

While milk from clones might reach grocery shelves, clones themselves are not likely to be eaten, since they cost thousands of dollars apiece to produce. They would be used as breeding stock, so the real question is whether their sexually produced offspring would be safe.

The FDA has been promising a policy for three years, but hasn't produced a final version, and some biotechnology companies involved in cloning have run out of cash while waiting. Weary livestock producers have dubbed the FDA the "Foot Dragging Administration."

The FDA declined requests for an interview. In response to written questions, Stephen Sundlof, chief of veterinary medicine at the agency, said the FDA "really can't provide a reliable estimate on the time frame" for releasing a policy.

But there are signs the agency is preparing to move. Lester Crawford, before he abruptly resigned Sept. 23 as FDA commissioner — for apparently unrelated reasons — said the agency was drafting a formal scientific paper outlining its conclusions.

Speaking at a conference this year, John Matheson, an FDA scientist working on the issue, said the policy was under review at higher levels of the Bush administration.

"We're spending a lot of time briefing these folks, trying to make them comfortable with the technology," Matheson said. "I think that's a microcosm of what you're going to see in the public when the decision goes out."

When the birth of Dolly the sheep was announced in 1997, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, American farmers and ranchers were as shocked as everyone. But by now, thousands of farm families have seen clones at agricultural fairs and grown comfortable with the idea.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/nation/epaper/2005/10/06/m1a_clonefood_1006.html

*****

It seems to me that it's way too early at this point to totally dismiss this out of hand. With the crap that's already filtering through our environmnet, water, ground and air, I don't believe it's a major risk either way.

You have a right to a clone diet with Genetically Engineered Garnish.
No doubt about that. You seem convinced.

For my taste and my health, as a free human being I want no cloned crap in my diet, or the diet of my children.

I side with Shakespeare on this:


What Shakespeare had to say about Genetic Engineering

And Man,
Proud Man
Dressed in a little brief authority
Most ignorant of what he'd most assured
His glassy essence like some angry ape
Did play such tricks before high heaven
As made the angels weep

will wonders never cease...

What's worse? Products grown and bred in our polluted environment or cloned products.

Actually, I trust more of what's grown in a laboratory than outside of it. At least there I know it's controlled, tested and taken far better care of. In the current environment we have our soil, water and air is polluted and we don't have any of those controls to keep safe our food. Hell, you can't even trust the freaking water coming through the faucet these days.

But that utopia does not exist and even with cloned animals already being used many of us might have already had milk or other animal products such as meat from cloned animals and don't even know it.

Hell, I'm not sure I do want to know what other forms of genetic manipulation have taken place because of the horrible way humanity has taken care of the environment. I prefer the scientists to do the cloning and genetic manipulation than various forms of pollution.

don't think so

price for our health. I guess, you want to eat un-natural meats, process foods with lots of chemicals in it, more power to YOU!

well, we have if we have followed advice to eat our nuts and our fruits, since these come from clones grafted onto rootstock

i'll take this "threat" seriously when the so-called organic vegans stop eating oranges & pecans