I was doing my daily traul through the BBC news website (www.bbc.co.uk), starting with the light fluff news (entertainment..) and ending on the more serious stuff (middle east, UK, USA). This is a daily ritual for me. I am finding it hard to keep up to date with world news since moving here to the US. Seems like most news channels on TV really just cover US stories, unless of course we are invading another country, then it gets highlighted. (opps, I should be careful what I say…).
Anyhow, an article popped up when I was reading the “health” section – not quite the entertainment fluff section, and not the serious sections either.. Every now and then a topic is brought up in the Health section that makes me think, well shit, I should have left this section for the end. It has now ruined my fluff to serious reading method!
OK, enough rambling – It looks like the US (FDA really..) has approved using meat and milk from cloned cows. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7190305.stm
My initial thought was “what the hell!!”… my thought today (I read this yesterday) is “what the hell!!” This just seems crazy to me. Research has been done in the past showing differences between cloned animals and regular ones. The amount of still births, and birth abnormalities is higher in cloned animals (I wish I still had a link to that research page), which tells me that things aren’t right in the cloned little darlings.
What is even more surprising is that the FDA has decided that manufacturers of this meat/milk (and yes, they are manufacturers to me..) don’t have to label products saying that they came from cloned animals.
Not wanting to get on my soap box, and make this blog all political – but this has really ticked me off. Consumers have a right to know what they are eating, and if something comes from a cloned animal, I sure as heck want to know about it.
I am glad now that I am picky about where I buy my beef and milk from, and I will continue to do so. If you are interested in raw milk in Washington, Sea Breeze farms (available at farmers markets, and Madison Market in Capitol Hill) is a great bet. They also do decent meat, as too does Skagit River Ranch
I would love to know if I am the only one that is amazed at this new green light for cloned food.
I have no idea how it happens – I mean why it’s ok to not tell the consumer where something comes from, how it comes about etc. It’s the same thing with genetically engineered crops – as a consumer we don’t know if it has been genetically engineered – as they don’t have to label it in America.
Yeah, I’m just as annoyed!