Hmmmm, where do we begin with this phenomenon? As I’ve been tracking the FDA’s decision just last week to approve food from cloned animals for consumer consumption, I got mad, then I got really sad. My anger came from the Federal Government’s overall lack of sensitivity for food safety (remember the Dole brand lettuce debacle) and the complete disregard for promoting real and whole food to the society at large.
According to a recent piece on NPR, “… the agency ignored the ethical problems with cloning. Cloning creates a genetic copy of an animal, so making clones of a cow that produces an amazing amount of milk, for example, could be quite lucrative...” I don’t know about you, but the idea of the business of cloning as it connects to our food source(s) is rather disturbing.
But then you have the other side of the debate: that cloning is just fine – that it’s a duplicate of the animal and that’s better than factory raised. I’m not a scientist, but I feel that constant replication or cloning from a source has got to get mutated and watered down at some point. However, I’m trying to think from a business standpoint where this could possibly work – perhaps in a country with zero grazing land, shortage of cattle, shortage of farmers, famine, etc. We are one of the most agriculturally rich countries in the world and our American farmer can barely stay alive. Shouldn’t we be promoting more natural, hormone free, healthier food for our society than cloned and pay our good farmers to do so?
According to bloggers over at Slow Food, they’re articulating some of my sentiments completely: “The FDA’s decision dismisses both concern from scientific communities regarding the risks of cloned food, but also ignores ethically questionable practices intrinsic to the cloning process. The FDA has also indicated that it will not require food from cloned animals to be labeled, so the public will have no way of knowing whether they are purchasing a cloned product…”
If you have concerns about this issue and want to read more, check out the Center for Food Safety. You can also take action on this public interest group's site with a direct link to your Senator to urge him or her to push for labeling on cloned food products. And if this isn’t reason enough to buy organic or from known farm sources, I don’t know what is. Check out Local Harvest for a national directory of farmers' markets, family farms and organic food. Let’s hope that the government goes through with proper labeling, so that at least the consumer knows that they’re getting a food product from a cloned animal.
Please submit comments to me and let me know what you're thinking on this issue. In the meantime, I shall have a veggie burger.
Namaste,
Yea I agree, the lack of labels is bad news. If something isn't labled how would you know what you're getting?
How do you avoid non-organic foods? You buy the foods that are labeld "organic". If the labels aren't there, the customer is in trouble.
Posted by: Greg Schnese | January 25, 2008 at 03:59 PM
That's right, Greg. No labels after 1/15/08 - you won't know. Best bet is to buy things labeled organic, but that does put a burden on families that might feel organics are too expensive for their family budget. Best bet - petition your senator for proper labeling - so at least you know what you're getting!
Posted by: Michelle Barge | January 28, 2008 at 08:18 PM