I read this morning that the FDA has declared that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe for human consumption. Sales, however, won't begin immediately - not because of safety, but for marketing purposes.
Apparently, it's going to take some time to brainwash the public into believing that cloned meat is okay to eat.
The best part is that when cloned products DO reach the market, they will not be labeled as such. Consumers will have no way of knowing if the meat they eat was bred the old fashioned way, or in a lab. This removes all choice from the consumer. And this royally pisses me off.
I love how government agencies like to make decisions like this on behalf of everyone. I love the fact that if, 5 or 10 or 20 years after cloned meat hits the marketplace, some terrible side effect is discovered, scientists and the government will simply shrug and say, "We didn't know." And everyone else will be living with the effects of that decision. Look at trans fat. Better than saturated fat! Safe to eat! Do your heart a favour! Oh...and, of course, the biggest benefit of all - cheaper for the manufacturers. Oooops...guess we fumbled the ball on THAT one, huh? We didn't know.
That is, unless, consumers demand more information and take more responsibility when it comes to the food that they eat. There is too much laziness and complacency in our society when it comes to what goes into our bodies. All too often people are willing to trust what they are told. It's time for people to get out there, do some research, and get informed. It amazes me how people put more time into researching what kind of car to buy than they do what they put into their bodies. Can't exactly drive that fancy new car if you're in the hospital fighting cancer, huh?
The particularly disturbing part is that once cloned animals enter our food chain, unless it is strictly tracked, eventually there will be no way of knowing which meat came from a cloned source and which didn't. So if one day, we do discover some horrible side effect of consuming meat and milk from cloned animals, we will not effectively be able to remove them from the food chain.
What really chaps my hide about this is that cloned animals are more expensive than those bred the "regular" way, so can someone remind me, what is the benefit of putting cloned meat on the market for human consumption? Are we doing it just because we can?
Consumers need to be given a choice. I'm sure that there are people out there who will happily chow down on a steak from a cow that was it's own sister. But what about those of us, like me, who still like to eat meat, at least from time to time, and want that meat to be guaranteed safe from cloning? Thankfully, there is always the organic choice, which means that it can't come from a cloned source. But where is the absolute guarantee that, somewhere down the line, Dolly the cow didn't get slipped in there without anyone noticing?
Yeah, I like meat. I am a carnivore. A six month stint of vegetarianism taught me that my body and my spirit are a whole lot happier if I occasionally eat something that had a face. I make no apologies for that. But if cloned meat hits the marketplace and it's not labeled as such, I think it's time to start thinking again about the many uses of tofu. Unless, of course, it comes from genetically modified soy.
But that's a rant for another day.
Read all about it here.
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6 comments:
I for one will not buy meat from the supermarket if it comes from cloned animals. I share in you anger. At least let us know what we're buying. I shouldn't have to eat something I don't want to.
I agree with you when you said they want to do it because they can. Well, I can stick my finger in my eye but I'm sure as hell not going to! I have enough common sense for that. Maybe the FDA should try sticking their finger in their own eye or some other such uncomfortable place... See how they like it!
Well this is the FDA we're talking about here. Not Health Canada. Their approval doesn't necessarily mean we'll see unmarked cloned meats on our grocery shelves here... that we'll see cloned meat on our grocery shelves, period. Either way, with the cost of cloning an animal as the technology stands right now, it'll be a long while.
The FDA won't require labels on cloned meat. It'll be up to the individual companies. I personally don't see consumer anxiety going away on this, and I feel that any cloned meat will end up being labeled as such despite what the FDA has to say about it. As it is Congress has passed legislation "urging the FDA to the study the issue more".
All in all I'm far less worried about this issue than the media would lead us to believe we should be. If worse comes to worse, we'll always have a *choice*, which could really be as easy as choosing to buy local "organic" meat instead of unmarked cloned meat products.
Nice topic!
Melanie, I read another article on the same topic on the cbc (thanks, Bip ;) And the final line of the article said that "Health Canada officials last year said they were waiting to evaluate the FDA's findings". If cloned milk and meat hits the shelves in the US, I'm sure that Canada won't be far behind.
Back in '03 Health Canada did claim they'll give the public "a chance to have their say" before any new regulations are developed. Let's hope they actually do. Health Canada doesn't always follow the FDA's suit, so I'm not so sure.
I'm actually quite curious to see what David Suzuki has to say about this whole mess! Haha, I love that guy.
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