FDA says cloned livestock produce does not require labeling
December 28th, 2006 | Published in Animals, Current Events, Ecology, Health | 1 Comment
The FDA has announced that cloned livestock are “safe to eat” and do not require special labeling. This means consumers will not know whether the meat (or dairy produce) they purchase is cloned or not. These sorts of decisions are to protect companies profits, not citizens. Many people — myself included — do not want to eat food from clones for health or religious or philosophic reasons, and we have a right to know whether the food we are buying is cloned.
FDA believes “that meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day,” said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine.
That is probably true since the FDA does not require labeling for genetically altered foods, such as corn and soy — foods that exude toxins and resist poison. They also do not require labels for dairy products from cows that have been given bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and antibiotics. So cloned meat is probably just as healthy as those foods. But I don’t think those are healthy, either, even if the FDA does.
This is an important issue. Please consider telling the FDA to require special labeling for cloned animal produce and genetically-altered produce. The FDA says they will accept comments from the public for the next three months. I hope they will listen. This is what I sent the FDA:
Hello,
Consumers should be given a right to know whether the meat (or dairy produce) they purchase is cloned or not through special labeling. Many people — myself included — do not want to eat food from clones for health or religious or philosophic reasons, and we have a right to know whether the food we are purchasing is cloned. We should also know if the food has been genetically altered. You should be the organization that gives us that choice. You are supposed to protect us and let us make informed decisions. Please do so.
Sincerely,
Joshua Sowin
January 14th, 2007 at 7:35 pm (#)
Hi Josh,
I was just checking out your site again, enjoying your good collection of quotes.
You caught me a little off guard with this FDA post. Have you ever read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma? I recommend it to you, if you haven’t. He writes about a lot of the same food/agriculture issues as Berry, but as a journalist instead of an essayist or analyst.
What I’m getting at is that if consumers know so little about the origins of their food that they need to depend in any way on the FDA, then they’re in pretty sorry straits to start with. I don’t mean to say that I don’t eat plenty of food, the origins of which I know next to nothing about — I do, but I don’t have any hope for this system either. I do try to eat outside that system as much as I can.
I guess the question I have for you is: don’t you think the assurance of knowing the producer of our food is a much more important solution than anything the FDA might do? If conventional food is possibly cloned, possibly GMO, etc., shouldn’t our first response be to substitute local food for conventional food wherever possible? Whatever place commodity food properly has at all, I tend to think of it as so trivial as to be all but undeserving of any attention.
I wonder if you just don’t know how or haven’t been able to realize the extent to which local food can replace commodity food. How feasible an alternative do you see local food as?
Visiting a brother in the Chicago area over Christmas time, I was amazed at how little local food seemed available there. I would have thought a market that big would bring lots of options. Maybe people that care about local food just don’t stay in places like Chicago very long. Or maybe it’s just that local food flies pretty low on the radar.
Don’t give up hope for the local food economy, though.
Eric