:eek:
FDA Is Set To Approve Milk, Meat From Clones

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer: Three years after the Food and Drug Administration first hinted that it might permit the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, prompting public reactions that ranged from curiosity to disgust, the agency is poised to endorse marketing of the mass-produced animals for public consumption. The decision, expected by the end of this year, is based largely on new data indicating that milk and meat from cloned livestock and their offspring pose no unique risks to consumers.....


The Economist: "IF YOU have ever longed for a meat substitute that smelt and tasted like the real thing, but did not involve killing an animal, then your order could be ready soon. Researchers believe it will soon be possible to grow cultured meat in quantities large enough to offer the meat industry an alternative source of supply." (This article refers to the use of stem cell technology.) ....

New Scientist: "Cloning livestock promises to bring us better food, but will anyone eat it? Cloning endangered species is an option only if the animal concerned has a closely related farmyard counterpart to supply eggs and act as a surrogate. And cloning pets is just for the sentimental with more money than biological understanding." A sporting chance, August 27, 2005


Congressional Quarterly: "Livestock farmers and animal breeders champion cloning as a cheaper alternative to conventional breeding. The technique is no different, they argue, than any other sort of breeding -- and could well result in safer food products, since it allows for greater control over disease factors in clone subjects.Consumer and food-safety advocates say the technique is anything but safe: It's been shown to create serious genetic defects, and too little is known about other health effects for the FDA to green-light widespread animal cloning." Critter Copies, Nov 11, 2006

Associated Press: "Cloning is the creation of an animal from the DNA of a single parent to create an offspring genetically identical to the parent.
"This seems to be one of the things where technology seems to drop something in the lap of the food companies," Ruland said in a recent interview. "It's not driven by the market or any benefit to the consumer."Dairy industry treading cautiously on cloned cows July 8, 2005

CNNMoney: "The report concluded "that animal cloning is as safe as other assisted reproductive technologies," said Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine."Almost all food will come from sexually produced offspring of the animals and not from the clones," said Sundlof.Cloned animals are used primarily for breeding which can help create stocks with increased resistance to disease or with superior meat quality, said Sundlof." FDA gives nod to cloned meat, milk safety, Dec. 28, 2006

Whenever one is interfering with nature, one needs to be careful. This is the same for cloned meat. FDA has said that the meat is safe, but cloned meat is not in the market, and I suppose they need to do a lot more tests before this happens. The basic danger in cloning, my common sense tells me, is in duplication, of creating the same genetical composition again and again, whereas nature, and all that is around us is based on and thrives upon diversity.

So unless a really wide study is carried out (tests so far are on small sample populations of animals) and comes out saying cloned meat is safe, one should stick away from it.

Of course there will be moral objections: cloned meat is not "natural" meat, and people may see something of a frankenstein in cloned animals. But then people were offended by organ transplants at one point of time, and it has become standard practice today. More importantly, a lot of people perhaps justifiably argue that eating meat in itself is wrong when other food to adequately sustain the human body are widely available. So the moral standpoint would be relative even on cloned meats.

What avid meat- eaters need to remember is that any product needs to be extensively tested before being released on the market....and cloned meats are just that, another product.

Ho rinunciata un tempo fa ---il carne --menomale:eek:

The problem with the FDA has always been--weakness---and especially to BRIBES in the form of money. They have never fully done their job to protect the people...only looked to satisfy what was currently in the market to raise sales. I don't know why we even need them--we must do the research ourselves and really think what is going on. No one should wait to see if the FDA passes something as safe--- it is safer to run onto a battlefield unarmed. I am really uneasy about all this-- I am truely frightened--because our health is in the hands of people who think they know what they are doing. I am willing to fight them along with others.

“The FDA’s recent announcement declaring milk and meat from cloned animals as safe,” says Smith, “reminds us of their 1992 approval of GM crops. When the agency’s internal files were made public years later, they revealed that the FDA’s GMO policy was dictated by corporate manipulation, not sound science. Warnings by government scientists were ignored by political appointees from the biotech industry.” Smith adds, “And like GMOs, the FDA does not want labels on cloned food, thereby forcing the entire population into their dangerous uncontrolled experiment.”

Jeffrey Smith is the author of Seeds of Deception, the world's bestselling book on GMOs. He is the founder and executive director of The Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT) and a leading spokesperson on the risks of GM foods. Go to www.responsibletechnology.org for eater-friendly tips
***Permission is granted to publishers and webmasters to reproduce issues of Spilling the Beans in whole or in part. Just email us at column@seedsofdeception.com

Not only is there the problem of cloned animal meats, but we have to address the fact of the source it all comes from; the bold fearless greedy people--that continue to ruin every form of nature--even in this moment as we speak. In the US they are selling (for human consumption) milk from cloned cows already UNLABELED so you'll never know (e fatta a posta) as they are convieniently performing their experiements on us human ginea pigs. The herbivore cows are force fed: feces, slaughterhouse scraps, and animal blood--this is neither NORMAL-- which goes completely against their nature. In turn they contract MAD COW diseases. And you know how the US is treating this self-inflicted epidemic??? By creating genetically modified cows that are immune to MAD COW so that they can continue to feed them this repulsive food. They are creating frankensteins.......its not only frightening....
Also if you didnt already know, 70% of the food in the USA is genetically modified.:eek:

it really is disgusting, that they can feed them things worse than corn. because cows arent made to eat corn, they get diseases, and two thirds of all the antibiotics in america go to cows. although i don't believe that they can sell cloned meat without saying that it is.

The FDA says a lot of things about a lot of things......

Cloned meat? No thank you. Not on my table.

I find the idea of cloning interesting but only as an experiment - Sort of like travelling to the moon. To what end?

Just recieved this e-mail from a friend. I did not write this so do not blame me!

reply sent to senators in charge of cloned meat nonlabeling‏

"I will never ever vote republican. Our food supply, as well as our air and water has been in jeopardy ever since the neoconservatives came to power and I might add illegally. As the recent election shows the majority of americans feel the same way and came out in mass to vote you perverts out of office!"

No matter what conclusions the various government's Food Standards Agencies draw from all the research, I think I'll leave GM/Cloned food well alone. At least the meat and veg I'm eating now has undergone several (hundred) thousand years of testing - and we still have occasional scares with that!!

I'm sure the pigs, cows, hens etc. can still manage to reproduce on their own, without the help of scientists.

Problem is that this government is not responsive to the voters at all. They only respond to the needs of the top 2%. They have been against the environment, selling off public lands to developers in Wyoming, wanting to drill oil in Alaskan wilderness and have tried to ram it through Congress over 60 times per la Madonna, against clean air standards and have accused global warming of being a myth, even though Gore got a Nobel Prize and steam ship companies are now using shorter routes that were once frozen all year in the Arctic, by 2020 it is predicted the North Pole will be completely melted and that suits the 9 countries that border it just fine who want acces to the oil reserves beneath it, never mind that the air will kill us to breathe it and the roads will be too clogged with traffic to move, they have resumed the arms race and greater military spending then all former budgets combined in US history and all the rest of the military budgets of every country in the world put together...what is the message there? Do they care about us voters, our children, our grandparents...no...only their capitalist owners. The implications of what humanity and its food supply can be reduced to by cloning and genetic engineering is truely scarey. Who and how few will be in charge of those decisions and with what agenda? In UK I read they have approved crossing human and animal DNA...does this mean that the Xmen will be real one day? In Italy I think the reason people have made a religion out of food is because:"We are what we eat!" There is only one motive behind the greed of the food companies and that is shelf life and profitability, not what we want or what is good for us consumers and like it or not we have all been reduced into consumers because with this large a global population we are all totally dependant on the mass producers for our survival. In America small family farms are a thing of the past. My cousins now rent themselves and their combines out for hire for the fall harvest to large corporations because they cannot make a living on their own land anymore. What about these corporations trying to suit farmers for patent infringement when genetically engineered seed blows over into their fields...cultivated grains are the common heritage of tens of thousands of years of human culture and history and should not be owned by corporations...the real enemy of the people are the giant multinational corporations. I happen to know that the entire food supply of the world is basically owned and controlled by one corporation which shall remain nameless out of Geneva, Switzerland like the way the DeBeers own and control the price of diamonds worldwide. Who put private insurance companies in charge of healthcare in the USA for example? What are we the people prepared to do about all this except bitch and moan though? Even though we voted in the liberals last election, a majority of one seat in the Senate is meaningless...look at Hillary, she is pro War, they all are...only Kucinich was honest and progresssive but naturally ran out of money. The real problem is the two parties are the same basically and serve the wealthy. Did Kerry represent you and me in his $40,000 suits?
At least in Italy eventhough Berlusconi(the Ruppert Murdock of Italy) and the neo-facscists are running things, there are 40 political parties at least and it takes a coalition to have a government and a vote of non confidence at any time can oust a Prime Minister. We would do well to have a similar institution here...we are so damn concerned about our worldwide image that they wouldn't even impeach that crook Nixon and instead pardoned him per carita!!!!

Cheers,

Brian H. Appleton

Sono totalmente di accordo Brian.

Hi guys
The following articles was on the Washington Post a few days ago. I also like to watch the Discovery and History channel etc and I watch a documentary about the conditions of pigs: It was worse than the cow article below. Where are we headed ?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/29/AR2008012903054_pf.html

Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008; A04



Video footage being released today shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own; drivers using forklifts to roll the "downer" cows on the ground in efforts to get them to stand up for inspection; and even a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals' noses -- all violations of state and federal laws designed to prevent animal cruelty and to keep unhealthy animals, such as those with mad cow disease, out of the food supply.

Moreover, the companies where these practices allegedly occurred are major suppliers of meat for the nation's school lunch programs, including in Maryland, according to a company official and federal documents.

The footage was taken by an undercover investigator for an animal welfare group, who wore a customized video camera under his clothes while working at the facility last year. [ Warning - Graphic Video: View the video on the Humane Society Web site ] It is evidence that anti-cruelty and food safety rules are inadequate, and that Agriculture Department inspection and enforcement need to be enhanced, said officials with the Humane Society of the United States, which coordinated the project.

Its better than having Soylent Green around, isn't it?

:p

In all seriousness, I wonder what a blind taste test between the two would result in? If you can fool the person eating it, you can fool people into buying it.

I don't have a stand on this, but I am worried that we as a people will be running out of food, and this seems like the only way to make sure everyone is fed.

If no-one got the joke, watch "Soylent Green" from 1973.