Yet another article from the Washington Post on cloned animals being used as food:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011501555.html
(the link isn't working for some reason so I'm pasting the article in it's entirety at the very bottom of this post)
In my eyes technology and food do not mix.
"This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain," said Donald Coover, a Galesburg cattleman and veterinarian who has a specialty cattle semen business. "Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're not being honest." (from post article)
First, it is very lovely that this HONEST cattleman/veterinarian (aka mass slaughterer of land and animals) makes money by doing NO WORK and underpaying (assumption...i'm allowed it's my blog and at least i'm calling myself out) workers to collect semen from cows (again via unethical methods of rape). That’s man for you…it’s all about making money off of doing as little as possible and taking advantage of those unable to defend themselves.
So called “food” is already being consumed from cloned animals without the general population even being aware of it. This is a dangerous and dishonest tactic and another betrayal of our fundamental rights as human animals. The same thing happened with GMO crops. I don’t really think people are aware that the corn (tortillas, popcorn, high fructose corn syrup, etc), soy (including all of its byproducts), tomatoes and most all other fruits and veggies are also being genetically modified, mixing technology with food. The government does not label fruits and vegetable products that are genetically modified, so in order to avoid these products you must eat an organic (or mostly organic) diet. It is of course impossible to be sure of the accuracy in labeling and standard practices, so the only true way to steer clear from these scary adaptations is to grow your own food (though that is not a realistic option for everyone…but is a great ultimate goal to aspire to…at least it is for us). As for the labeling of cloned animals, their offspring and byproducts…you are basically out of luck. Forget the so called “happy meat”, just steer clear from all animal products; it is the only way to be sure you aren’t eating a genetic disaster waiting to happen.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard the arguments for eating meat and animal products as natural and as tasting good, but are these two ideas really worth the possibility of disease, defects, deformity and possible extinction? I mean why do you think other places like Europe (who even rejects many gene altered crops) and Japan are refusing products from cloned animals? They are highly against introducing cloned animals into their food chains. I guess America doesn’t care about its people; we care more about capitalism and producing a “BETTER PRODUCT” by any means necessary. THIS IS OBVIOUS AND IS DEFINTELY FORSHADOWING A VERY BLEAK FUTURE FOR US ALL.
These cloned animals have various problems with their health and suffer high mortality rates! Doesn’t that say enough? I am surprised there isn’t more of a unified public outcry. Aren’t people pissed? Don’t they want to speak out and tell the government they aren’t standing for this? I guess a nation who rallies around dead animals in celebration and hacks down rainforests for the taste of flesh also known as hamburger doesn’t truly care about what goes into their bodies or that of their families (an estimated 55 square feet of rainforest is what we’re trading for a quarter pound of hamburger, bringing your body more than a quarter percent closer to death as the corpses of dead animals decay in your digestive tract). Very disappointing I might add, very…
Generally people may not want cloned products, but I guarantee those with vested interest will strategically smooth the way with their great marketing and public relations campaigns. This should be very interesting to watch unfold. Keep your eyes peeled.
Bruce I. Knight, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, requested an ongoing "voluntary moratorium" to buy time for "an acceptance process" that Knight said consumers in the United States and abroad will need, "given the emotional nature of this issue." (from post article)
Haha…an acceptance process GREAT, and people are just gullible enough. Prove me wrong! I’d love to be wrong with this particular assumption.
At issue are clones of beef cattle, dairy cows, pigs and goats, as well as their offspring, which farmers in the United States and a few other countries are starting to raise in an effort to produce more consistently high-quality milk and meat. (from post article)
So I guess living creatures need perfecting (nature isn’t good enough and the eating meat and drinking milk is natural argument is totally thrown away because CLONED ANYTHING is not NATURAL). Once again animals are being objectified and treated as a product, a commodity and definitely not a LIFE WORTH ANYTHING…
The agenda seems to be all about desensitizing the masses and it starts with these non-human animals. The cloning of humans (which is already in progress) is sure to follow as a normal practice and standard. People + Technology = the acceptance of national ID cards, veri-chip implants and our freedoms and privacy being taken away for the alleged safety and security reasons. The negative implications reach far beyond the animal rights spectrum. We’re losing this battle, our freedom to privacy and our freedom to choose and have knowledge of what EXACTLY goes into our bodies.
The last quote in the article really was a gnarly one and made me want to smash stuff.
While the now-expired FDA moratorium sought to keep both clones and their offspring off the market, the new USDA moratorium requests only that clones themselves be withheld, so the offspring might make it to store shelves within a few years.
But imagine the labels that would appear if certain rules were in place, Greenwood said:
" 'This steak's father was a clone.'
'This steak's grandfather was a clone.'
'This steak's great-grandmother was a clone.'
"At what point does it become absurd?" (from post article)
Ummmm don’t you think it became absurd when eating animals (and the economic factors revolving around eating animals) became so important that people would risk their health and well being? Not to mention the absurdity in recognizing animals that you believe to be food as a father, grandfather and great-grandmother. The ethical implications are so obvious and apparently easy to avoid or ignore.
Did a Fast Make Gwyneth Sicketh?
Photo: WireImage
Horreur! Gwyneth Paltrow was admitted to Mount Sinai yesterday with ailments unknown, Us Weekly is reporting. "She was slumped over in a wheelchair pushed by [husband] Chris Martin," a witness told Us. "She looked not well." However, Us also reported that later that evening a bag from Organic Avenue was delivered, which indicates that the actress is at least eating. Or is she? Like the virtual Woodward and Bernsteins we are, we called Organic Avenue to find out what was in the bag. "She's doing our five-day live-food fast," an employee told us. Reaaaaaally, we drawled in our best gumshoe-detective voice. Could that be why she's in the hospital, perhaps? The employee laughed like that was just crazy talk. Right, because whoever heard of anyone getting sick from not eating? "Oh, no," she said. "She's eating salads, there's juices. There's actually quite a bit of food there, it's just all raw and organic." And so our groundbreaking reporting reached a dubious but still satisfying conclusion. Because Gwyneth can't actually be that sick if she's still sticking to her diet.
I hope idiots don’t use this as an attack on raw and organic diets…
P.S.
R.I.P.-Brad Renfro (def one of my fav actors who lived too fast and died too soon)
USDA Recommends That Food From Clones Stay Off the Market (FOR NOW...HA!)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday asked U.S. farmers to keep their cloned animals off the market indefinitely even as Food and Drug Administration officials announced that food from cloned livestock is safe to eat.
Bruce I. Knight, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, requested an ongoing "voluntary moratorium" to buy time for "an acceptance process" that Knight said consumers in the United States and abroad will need, "given the emotional nature of this issue."
Yet even as the two agencies sought a unified message -- that food from clones is safe for people but perhaps dangerous to U.S. markets and trade relations -- evidence surfaced suggesting that Americans and others are probably already eating meat from the offspring of clones.
Executives from the nation's major cattle cloning companies conceded yesterday that they have not been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply, despite a years-old request by the FDA to keep them off the market pending completion of the agency's safety report.
At least one Kansas cattle producer also disclosed yesterday that he has openly sold semen from prize-winning clones to many U.S. meat producers in the past few years, and that he is certain he is not alone.
"This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain," said Donald Coover, a Galesburg cattleman and veterinarian who has a specialty cattle semen business. "Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're not being honest."
Yesterday's awkwardly meshed announcements by FDA and USDA officials, made at a joint news conference in Washington, reflected continuing divisions among U.S. regulatory agencies on how to deal with the issue of food from clones.
Stephen F. Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, spoke from his perspective as the person who oversaw that agency's six-year review of the safety of milk and meat from clones and their offspring. He released the results of that 968-page "final risk analysis," saying "meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day."
That conclusion amounted to handing the cloned-food hot potato to the USDA's Knight, whose agency has the responsibility of getting those products accepted on the market.
Recent surveys indicate that the agency has a challenge. Last year, 22 percent of Americans who responded to a major survey said they had a favorable impression of food from clones.
That was up from 16 percent a year earlier. Nonetheless, about 50 percent have an unfavorable impression, said Danielle "Dani" Schor of the International Food Information Council Foundation, an industry-funded interest group that has conducted the survey of 1,000 Americans annually since 2004.
At issue are clones of beef cattle, dairy cows, pigs and goats, as well as their offspring, which farmers in the United States and a few other countries are starting to raise in an effort to produce more consistently high-quality milk and meat.
Some of them, including the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, have been struggling for years to persuade countries in Europe and other parts of the world to accept gene-altered crops from the United States. The last thing those agencies needed, insiders said, was a new U.S. product that nobody wants.
The USDA's request that farmers keep their clones out of the food chain, probably for a few more years, "is simply allowing the time for an orderly transition to occur," Knight said, adding that the department is already having conversations with U.S. trading partners and trying to smooth the way to acceptance.
Some U.S. consumer groups have expressed concern for the cloned animals, which often have health problems, and have suggested that the American public may be as tough a sell as the wary consumers in the European Union and Japan.
"Despite the fact that cloned animals suffer high mortality rates and those who survive are often plagued with birth defects and diseases, the FDA did not give adequate consideration to the welfare of these animals or their surrogate mothers in its deliberations," said Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States.
Some U.S. groups have demanded that food from clones be labeled to give consumers the "right to choose."
But James Greenwood, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose members include the nation's biggest farm-animal cloning companies, rejected that idea, as has the FDA. He said cloning is simply a way to make offspring. Other methods of farm animal procreation, such as in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination, are not listed on food labels.
He and other industry representatives specifically rejected proposals to label food from conventionally conceived offspring of clones.
While the now-expired FDA moratorium sought to keep both clones and their offspring off the market, the new USDA moratorium requests only that clones themselves be withheld, so the offspring might make it to store shelves within a few years.
But imagine the labels that would appear if certain rules were in place, Greenwood said:
" 'This steak's father was a clone.' 'This steak's grandfather was a clone.' 'This steak's great-grandmother was a clone.'
"At what point does it become absurd?"
Staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
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