REMEMBERING DOLLY...

Would you be surprised to learn that americans (well, americans and Canadians) are, and have been, for at least two years now, consuming cloned meat products? I was!

To begin with we see little to nothing in the news anymore regarding cloning of animals, not since Dolly the Sheep really. Similar to the deregulation of the financial institutions (Govt's repealing Glass-Steigal allowed Financial Institutions to police themselves...and we all know how THAT turned out)the FDA seems to believe it isn't necessary to regulate cloned food products. In 2008 the FDA ruled products from clones and their offspring need not be labeled as such because they are "no different from food derived from conventionally bred animals."

The FDA took the same approach with dairy products containing BHG (bovine growth hormones), making it "voluntary" to label as such. Well, except in the case of BHG, the FDA decreed producers were "allowed" to advertise BHG-Free on their products! Seems Mondanto, who makes BHG, is dead set against this labeling, and in fact even has two lawsuits pending (against The Pure Milk and Ice Cream Co. of Waco, Texas) for actually choosing to NOT use BHG AND advertise the fact! Is it just me, or does it there seem to be some complicity between our FDA and corporations? Nah...just my paranoia showing again :)...the FDA was established to help assure safety in our food and drugs, right?

Getting back to the cloning...it seems the FDA once again feels it is enough to simply ask that producers (in this case, cloned products) "voluntarily keep milk and meat from clones out of the food and feed supplies until we finish assessing their safety." This is how it currently stands. We all know how his "voluntary" system works in corporations, asking them to police themselves. It would seem once again our FDA has let us down, jeopardizing the health and welfare of the American consumer, perhaps in favor of well, certain better paying customers or "persons" ...aka Corporations.

Unlike in the USA, Food safety representatives from the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) have recently demanded a bill regulating animal cloning within a year. ENVI insists that meat or milk products from the offspring of clones be labeled and traceable. Why is it we have never seen the likes of such a bill, or that it has ever been put before the american consumer to have a say?


"The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." ~Woodrow Wilson