Meat, milk from cloned animals OK'd

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)
LOS ANGELES -- A long-awaited study by US scientists has concluded that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat and drink and should be allowed to enter the food supply without any special labeling.
(snip)

(snip)
"All of the studies indicate that the composition of meat and milk from clones is within the compositional ranges of meat and milk consumed in the US," the FDA scientists concluded in a report published in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Theriogenology, which focuses on animal reproduction.

The study, however, prompted a sharp reaction from food safety advocates.

The FDA "has been trying to foist this bad science on us for several years," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety in Washington. "When there is so much concern among so many Americans, this is really a rush to judgment."
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(snip)
Though cloning is expensive -- Coleman paid $60,000 to clone First Down -- producers have embraced it for the efficiencies it can bring to a farm or ranch. If a particular bull consistently produces strong offspring or a dairy cow is an unusually prolific milk producer, those advantages can be multiplied with clones.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/24/meat_milk_from_cloned_animals_okd/?page=1

This is a bad idea. Worse a dangerous and harmful idea.

And I'm not saying that because I don't believe the scientific reports supporting the safety of cloned animals, at least that isn't the primary reason. I'm not an expert and haven't studied those reports so it would be disingenuous of me to base my criticism of this decision on claims of faulty science. In fact it makes sense to my engineering trained brain that there should be no difference between a cloned animal and a more traditionally grown animal. In fact I've considered this debate in the food safety circles pretty irrelevant until recently.

I'd generally be willing to let a panel of experts advise and make some of the decisions related to cloning of livestock - but which experts and what goals are they looking to achieve or assist with their advice and decisions?

This decision is about supporting and enabling the massive and destructive industrial food chain - at least the meat part - in this nation (increasingly global as well).

Yesterday nosmokes posted on the subject of the industrial food chain which linked to a TomPaine piece which in turn referenced a article by Micheal Pollan: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/22/the_dirt_on_our_farms.php

Michael Pollan's book "Omnivore's Dilemma" is what educated me about the dangers of our industrial food chain. The way we force cattle to eat and live in ways completely contrary to how they evolved, even under the somewhat directed evolution of thousands of years of domestication - which has until recently really a coevolution with humans.

The decision to allow cloning is spurred by a fundamental hubris and recklessness that has lead to things like force feeding corn to grass eating cows (which causes illnesses that require the use of strong antibiotics which put humans at risk from new and more powerful bugs) and that is that "All the knowledge we have is all the knowledge we need"

As a species we can not be over timid and not make decisions and take action on the basis of our always limited knowledge, but we must not swing to the other extreme either and forget the 'limited' part of our knowledge and make decisions without calculating the risks.

And that is what this decision is doing or perhaps that is not fair. They have calculated the risks - to profit and large scale industrialization and the decision is cloning should be allowed. Cloning will allow the further 'mechanization' of cows and other meat animals, removing us further from our connection to nature and the natural coevolved food chain.

But we can never remove ourselves from the natural food chain and the more we disconnect ourselves from the natural food chain the more danger, the more risk we are creating to our most basic need - Food.

[LaurenG]

1. Another reason

to become a vegan.:evilgrin:

[flvegan]

2. !

Oh, boy. Either the flamethrowers haven't been gassed up since last night, or heads have exploded en masse.

[pitohui]

15. fruit has been cloned for thousands of years

i don't think i've sprouted two heads yet from eating fruit from my trees -- all of which are clones

if you do not want to eat clones, you cannot really eat fruit or nuts, you know

[MadHound]

3. So, what are you going to do about it? I suggest exercising the power of the pocketbook

Refuse to buy your meat and dairy from anybody other than local, known, non-cloning, organic sources. Broadcast this information far and wide, and suggest that your friends and neighbors follow your lead and patronize these food sources. The only bounds that corporations is the bounds set by the consumer, therefore if Americans refuse to buy frankenfood, then corporate America will refuse to sell it. Besides, you will not only be supporting your local farmers, and insuring a healthier diet for yourself, but more than likely you will be paying if you can afford to buy in bulk. Most small farmers will sell you a side or a quarter of a cow, which is then butchered to your specifications. We purchased one last year, and the cost per pound, no matter the cut, was $1.83. Sure, this price will vary widely across the country, but if you have the freezer space, I would recommend taking this route.

[YankeyMCC]

4. Exactly my plan

I have my farmer picked out alrady and will be disucssing this a lot over the next couple of days with friends and family and try to put together a larger order for the farmer. I will offer people to be the 'pick up guy'.

And of course posting things like this on places like DU. :)

[MadHound]

6. Thank you for supporting your local farmer

Believe it or not, but there is a backlash forming in the small farming community, uniting such diverse groups as the Amish to your stereotypical good ol' boy to those who've gone back to nature, all in common union to preserve the small farm and face down corporate agriculture. It is a broad based movement, slowly gaining steam. Ultimately I think it will be successful, if for no other reason than it will be these naturaly operated farms will be the only ones that survive the ravages of our corporate controlled agriculture. Cloning meat is just but one example of corporate hubris, draining an already shallow gene pool, a "solution" that will come to no good end. But like with other gene pools, there are folks out there keeping the old breeds alive.

I don't know where you live, but when you go out to the country, find yourself an heirloom orchardist and patronize them for their fruit. You will not believe your taste buds the first time you bite into a Porter's Perfection apple, or a Seckle pear. We're out here too, keeping the old lines going, and bringing back delicious fruit for all(thanks for the personal/professional courtesy plug;))

And if you've got some room, hey, grow your own. There are several good heirloom seed places online. I recommend my personal favorite, Heirloom Acres <http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/> but there are many others such as the Seed Savers Exchange and Taylors that carry high quality seeds and supplies. Peruse them all for your favorite varities of plants and vegetables. But I will tell you that some of these varieties are a bit trickier to grow than your everyday hybrids that you stick in the ground. Still and all though, you can find plenty of advice out there, and growing your own is great soul, and taste, satisfaction.

Glad to see more awareness of this topic coming to the fore, the more people who are in the know, the less power corporate ag has on this country.

[Jcrowley]

7. Yep

:toast:

to local food from local folk.

[YankeyMCC]

8. It's a fantastic movement in many ways

I just finished "Omnivore's Dilemma" as I said and reading about the Polyface farm and the Salatin family was very inspiring. Of course for the local food movement they are part of but also because the Salatins are about as different from me politically and in terms of world view as is possible. They are conservative christians and I'm a progressive atheist. Yet there is still common ground between Joel Salatin and myself, and it is ground on which we can find unity of purpose and accomplish good things...like changing the way people view the food chain and making real progress in combating climate change.

[peacebuzzard]

5. I will have to come back and read the Tom Paine link.

kick.... (and Merry Holidays today ...... take some time today to reflect on the genetic engineering behind your dinner ham)

for now have to run and pick up my veggie burger fixings for my dinner and wine tonight.......

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

9. If It's Safe It's Safe. No Problem With This On My End.

[Squatch]

10. Nor here.

[YankeyMCC]

11. The whole industry isn't safe

And the approval of cloning is only going to increase the problems by increasing the industries ability to mechanize the artificially 'hyped-up' industrial food chain we're living on. The food chain that is using up fossil fuels - literally feeding fossil fuels into the food chain - creating toxic waste out of what was once useful byproduct, promoting the evolution of more dangerous diseases and in general putting us all on a very dangerous footing...or rather a very unsound footing.

[LeftyMom]

12. Seems shockingly unfair to the animals (not that that's anything new)

So far, they haven't made cloning at all reliable, and many failed pregnancies, stillbirths and abnormalities occur for one successful birth (last I heard in large mammals the ratio was as high as 200/1.) They still haven't figured out why the cloned animals are less healthy, are fatter and die younger than is normal for their species, let alone how to prevent that.

It's unfair to both the animal bred to suffer and the animals used to carry the many failed pregnancies needed to create that one cloned animal.

[NashVegas]

13. Oh, and One Thing

This FDA study isn't independent research; it's based on other, previous studies, the largest of which were conducted by two of the largest cloning companies.

[Jcrowley]

14. Kick

People are divorced from their food and do not understand what is happening here.

[Ravy]

16. You can have the best steak you have ever eaten from a clone...

every single night of the month!