FDA Says Food From Cloned Animals Is Safe To Eat
Featured ArticleMain Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Genetics; Veterinary
Article Date: 29 Dec 2006 - 4:00 PDT
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to rule that food from cloned animals is as safe to eat as food from conventionally reared ones.
The proposed ruling was issued yesterday, December 28th, and is currently in draft status, until the 90-day public consultation elapses after which it will be made final.
The FDA's proposed ruling is in three parts: a risk assessment, a risk management plan, and information for the food industry.
The risk assessment proposes that eating meat and milk from cloned adult cattle, pigs, goats and their offspring is as safe as eating those products from animals reared in the conventional way. Sheep are not mentioned because there is not enough evidence on sheep cloning to give a reliable risk assessment.
The FDA investigated the relevant scientific evidence and an independent panel of experts on animal health and cloning reviewed and agreed with their findings. The findings are in line with a 2002 report from the National Academies of Sciences.
Dr Stephen Sundlof, Director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine said in a press release yesterday: "Based on FDA's analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and other studies on the health and food composition of clones and their offspring, the draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day."
Dr Sundlof adds that cloning presents no added risk when it is compared to the "other assisted reproductive technologies" currently used by US farmers.
The risk management plan outlines measures that the FDA recommends for the care of animals used in or resulting from cloning technology. They also ask that producers hold back from selling food from cloned animals until the consultation process has elapsed, its outcome is reviewed and the FDA's final ruling is made.
Cloning is where a cloned animal is a genetic copy of its donor "sibling" - in the same way as identical twins have the same genetic code because they come from the same egg and sperm. The difference is that the clone does not start life in the womb alongside its "sibling", but at a later stage, from cells taken from an adult donor. So it is like having identical twins but one is already an adult when the other is born.
The cells from the donor are inserted into an egg from which the DNA has been removed, so that only the donor's DNA is present in the ensuing embryo, which gestates in the womb of a "surrogate mother" and is born in the normal way.
Dolly the sheep, born in 1997 and named after Dolly Parton, is a famous example of a cloned animal.
Cloning happens in the plant world all the time - every time you take a cutting and grow it into a mature plant you have cloned an identical specimen. Some grape vines today are clones of originals that existed in the Roman times over 2,000 years ago.
Cloning is not the same as genetic engineering (also called genetic modification (GM), or gene splicing). Genetic engineering involves altering the gene pattern of an existing organism, and does not result in the production of a genetically identical "twin". Genetic engineering technology now lies behind the production of human insulin (produced from genetically altered bacteria), herbicide resistant crops, and many other medicine and food related applications.
Click here to view the Draft Risk Assessment Papers on Animal Cloning (FDA).
Click here to read about Dolly the sheep, 1996-2003 (Science Museum, UK)
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
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FDA Has Been BOUGHT
posted by Rosiemeow on 30 Dec 2006 at 6:56 amThe greed infested super-power wannabes of the US once again sell their citizens down the river. Please - voice your views at http://www.fda.gov > Hop Topics > Animal Cloning > Submit Comments.
We do not want this, however the Government counts on the head-in-the-sand of the US people to allow this to happen.
From the FDA Statement:
"Based on FDA's analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and other studies on the health and food composition of clones and their offspring, the draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day.
The foods we now eat every day are contaminated and making us all sick. "As safe as" says nothing. Arsenic is as safe as rat poison.
"Because the release of the draft risk assessment and proposed risk management plan marks the beginning of our interaction with the public on these issues, we are continuing to ask producers of clones and livestock breeders to voluntarily refrain from introducing food products from these animals into commerce so that we will have the opportunity to consider the public's comments and to issue any final documents as warranted," said Sundlof.
So the producers have not been PROHIBITED from introducing this meat into our food supply - they have been *asked* to "voluntarily refrain" from doing so. This is like "asking" Don Corleone to voluntarily refrain from shoving in class.
"Imagine the perfect dairy cow. For eight years she has gotten pregnant on the first try, given birth easily, and produced gallon upon gallon of the best milk. Even when others in the herd got sick, she stayed healthy. She is ideally suited to the climate in which she lives. The farmer has depended on this cow and her daughters in lean times to carry the farm through, but now she is at the end of her reproductive life."
Did they write this for Mrs. Foss's first grade class???? Is John Lennon still alive and well writing for the FDA???
As a group, livestock clones tend to have more health problems at birth, and may die more often right after birth than conventionally bred animals.
According to the above statement, there ARE unique problems with cloned livestock but of course that is being downplayed so we can get it into the food supply quicker.
Is it Safe to Eat Food from Clones? Here's what they say:
It’s important to remember that the purpose of clones is for breeding, not eating.
But then it goes on to say:
Dairy clones will produce milk after they give birth, and the dairy farmers will want to be able to drink that milk or put it in the food supply. Once clones used for breeding meat-producing animals can no longer reproduce, their breeders will also want to be able to put them into the food supply.
The NAS gathered an independent group of top, peer-selected scientists from across the country to conduct this study. The scientists delivered their report in the fall of 2002. That report stated that theoretically there were no concerns for the safety of meat or milk from clones. On the other hand, the report expressed a low level of concern due to a lack of information on the clones at that time, and not for any specific scientific reasons. The report also stated that the meat and milk from the offspring of clones posed no unique food safety concerns
"THEORETICALLY"??? OTOH, a "low level of concern" due to a LACK OF INFORMATION on the clones at that time, and not for ANY SPECIFIC SCIENTIFIC REASONS.
Who wrote this garbage? And who do they think is going to believe it? According to the FDA's own words, there is a LACK OF INFORMATION.
We allowed them to genetically engineer our wheat and corn - 10 years later we have an allergy and food intolerance epidemic. The wheat and corn was engineered to withstand large amounts of pesticides (it's called Roundup Ready) which will basically blow up an insect's stomach - huh - seen the message boards on GERD lately? And this is what WE are eating. This has offset the environmental balance that has affected our waters as well where peaceful-natured sea mammals are becoming agressive and disoriented just as WE are. We allowed them to introduce growth hormones into our meats and now we *somehow* have an obesity epidemic and 5 year old girls looking like Anna Nicole Smith. Are we going to allow this FDA recommendation to pass as well? Lord, I hope not, but it will if we do not articulate our feelings and take back control over our lives, our environment and our stinking greed infested, grandiose super-power wannabes, and we have to do it quickly.
Please - read the FDA petition on the top of this thread and voice your views.
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