Don't Buy It: Keep Cloned Meat Off Grocery Shelves

Cloned AnimalsWhat it Means to Eat Meat and Dairy from Cloned Animals

Tell grocers you arent buying it!The FDA has lifted a voluntary ban on allowing cloned animal products from entering the human food supply. Based upon flawed studies, the FDA has claimed that eating meat and dairy from cloned animals or their offspring is harmless to human health.

Cloned animals have a much higher rate of genetic abnormalities than sexually reproduced animals. Most cloned animals die immediately after birth because the intricacies of the cloning process are still not well understood. Dolly, the first cloned sheep, died only six years after her birth of premature arthritis and lung disease. Obviously there are many genetic complications with cloned animals. Why would we want to ingest something that is known to be genetically flawed and diseased?

The FDA has also rejected requests for labeling food from cloned animals and their offspring. You may be able to know if your milk is hormone-free, but you wont be able to tell if it comes from a normal dairy cow or a clone.

The FDA study did not look at the long-term health effects of consuming cloned animal products. Eating genetically abnormal clones may cause human health abnormalities, leading to cancer and other late-onset degenerative diseases. Genetically abnormal clones will also interact freely with the environment, causing unknown downstream effects to other parts of the ecosystem. Creating a livestock population that is genetically identical due to cloning is not sustainable because it reduces genetic diversity, putting the entire livestock population at risk for disease.

Companies that are pursuing animal cloning are the same companies who are pursuing human cloning. By approving and endorsing animal cloning, we are taking a huge ethical jump towards permitting human cloning. Animal cloners want to create a superior animal breed. Perfecting that process will lead to a resurgence of eugenics like never before to create a superior human race.

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has taken the lead in Congress on trying to prohibit cloned food from entering our food supply. Her amendment to the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) to halt the FDAs endorsement of cloned food until two studies were completed by the National Academy of Sciences and the United States Department of Agriculture passed in the Senate. She also included language in the 2008 omnibus package which strongly encouraged the FDA to delay any major decision on cloned food until further study. Senator Mikulski has also introduced into the Senate the Cloned Food Labeling Act (S. 414) which would require labeling of all food products from cloned animals or their offspring. Legislation has been introduced in at least ten states (CA, KY, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NY, NC, TN, and WA) that would require the labeling of cloned animal products.

Don't Buy It: Keep Cloned Meat Off Grocery Shelves

The FDA has buckled to big biotech and agro-business despite more than 150,000 public comments opposing the lifting of the ban, and amendments to the federal Farm Bill and Omnibus Appropriations Bill calling for more research before lifting the ban.

Genetically speaking, meat eaters could eat burgers from the same cow for years. Don't let the marketplace support such experimentation with our ecosystem and the food we eat.

Don't eat meat or animal products? We still think this issue will interest you, given the risks taken by introducing cloned animals into our food system and ecosystem.

Sign the petition below and tell grocers you aren't buying it!  Tell them you'll stop shopping at stores that can't promise not to sell such products.

(Recipients include: A&P, Costco, Wal-Mart, Food Lion, Giant, Safeway, Whole Foods, Hardings, Super Fresh and others.)

For More Information : http://action.foe.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3691&t=2007_Healthy-People.dwt