“Genetically speaking, you meat eaters could eat burgers from the same cow for years.”
Posted on January 16, 2008 by
Wow, this is creepy. I got an e-mail from Friends of the Earth last night regarding the FDA’s decision to lift the ban on selling meat and dairy products from cloned animals.
“The FDA has buckled to big biotech and agro-business despite more than 150,000 public comments opposing the lifting of the ban, and amendments to the federal Farm Bill and Omnibus Appropriations Bill calling for more research before lifting the ban.
Genetically speaking, you meat eaters could eat burgers from the same cow for years.
Don’t eat meat? We still think this issue will interest you, given the risks we take by introducing cloned animals into our food system and ecosystem.
It is too late to stop the FDA from permitting the sale of food from cloned animals, and there are no labeling requirements either, which is why we need to make grocery stores pay a price for choosing to sell it.”
The e-mail goes on to say:
“The FDA claims that cloned animals and their offspring are safe for us to eat, yet studies used by the FDA are incomplete. Cloned animals have a much higher rate of genetic abnormalities than animals that reproduce naturally. Most cloned animals die immediately after birth because the intricacies of the cloning process are still not well understood. Dolly, the first cloned sheep, died only six years after her birth of premature arthritis and lung disease.“
All the more reason to buy organic and free-range meat and dairy products (if you eat meat and dairy).
Please sign the FOE petition to major grocery stores telling them you will not shop at a store that cannot guarantee clone-free meat and dairy. What a strange world we’re living in, huh?
As a non meat-eater, I’m doubly against this, but I still don’t get something. Why is it cheaper to clone an animal than to just let it reproduce the way it used to? I’m so confused as to why this was allowed to happen.
I think I’m taking up Michael Pollan’s new motto: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Speaking of Michael Pollan, I’ve been reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I already avoid beef almost entirely, but now I’m rethinking that “almost.” It seems like the FDA, DOA, and agri-business people are actually trying to come up with even more reasons for us to not eat meat at all. It’s like they’re trying to scare away those of us on the bubble, those who probably should have been frightened meatless long, long ago.