by Judith Richards

Created on: June 10, 2008

Special Tonight! Prime Rib! Would you order it? What if you found out it was from the offspring of a cloned animal? If the FDA has its way you won't know if the meat on
your plate is cloned or not. If you refuse it, you are not alone as many Americans are hesitant to eat products from cloned animals. Even though the FDA has approved it
for human consumption, many people still have reservations. What is making us nervous?

FDA APPROVAL
To begin with the FDA does not have a good track record of protecting consumers from dangerous products. How many drugs have been pulled off the market for dangerous side effects which appeared after the FDA approved the drug as safe for humans? And of course we know that the studies the FDA relies on are performed and paid for by the companies producing the products. Many of us question the thoroughness of the studies and the truth of the results.

In this case the studies of cloned products are paid for by the companies producing them. The company also pays the FDA to review their research and grant approval. Is the FDA really going to bite the hand that feeds them by withholding approval? The FDA has even admitted that they still don't know what causes the abnormalities that occur in cloned animals. They don't have all the answers, but yet they feel qualified to approve something that's still a mystery to them.

OPPONENTS
Opponents of cloned products, specifically meat and milk, cite the following issues:
1. Some cloned animals show organ abnormalities, early deaths and a lowered immune
system making them more susceptible to disease. WHY? WHAT ABOUT MORE RESEARCH?
2. The FDA did not do a thorough job of reviewing all aspects of the cloned products. IS
THERE SOMETHING THEY MISSED?
3. What about all the clones of clones? Aren't we talking inbreeding? INBREEDING CAUSES
SUSCEPTABILITY TO DISEASES. WILL THIS GET PASSED ON TO THE CONSUMER?
4. Opponents feel cloned products should be assessed with the same rigors as drugs as both
are produced unnaturally. CAN WE TRUST THE FDA TO TELL THE TRUTH DESPITE BEING IN THE
POCKETS OF THE INDUSTRY?
5. What about safety regulations of the industry?
6. Biochemist Mae-Wan Ho, a leading critic of the industry, states that even clones that
look "normal" still have abnormal genes.

DANGER
The most unsettling part of this whole issue is that the FDA will not require products from cloned animals to be labeled as such. How will you choose? The products may even be mixed in with other products, again with no labeling.

I would like to see more research done by outside testing facilities not connected to the industry. Have we determined what the long term affects will be? At this point the FDA has no idea. Only you and I can decide for ourselves if we will eat cloned products. I choose not to because #1- I do not trust the FDA; they've made too many mistakes in the past, and #2-I don't think enough research and long term studies have been done to prove it's safe to eat cloned products.

I also have a problem with the process of cloning which is an unnatural process. Why do we have to play God, thinking we can always do better than what's been created. There's a reason our food is made the way it is and, unfortunately, we may find out too late, why.

References:

"Is America Ready for Cloned Meat?"
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333673,00. html

"Cloned Milk and Meat: What's the Beef?"
http://www.livescience.com/health/080109-anima l-cloning.html

"FDA says meat from cloned animals is safe but not everyone agrees"
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=34358

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