Cloned Milk and Meat: More Bad Food

[Jcrowley]

According to a statement from the Center for Food Safety:
* Surrogate mothers are treated with high doses of hormones; clones are often born with severely compromised immune systems and frequently receive massive doses of antibiotics. This opens an avenue for large amounts of veterinary pharmaceuticals to enter the human food supply;

* Imbalances in clones' hormone, protein and/or fat levels could compromise the quality and safety of meat and milk;

* The National Academy of Sciences has warned that commercialization of cloned livestock for food production could increase the incidence of food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli infections;

* Cloning commonly results in high failure rates and defects such as intestinal blockages; diabetes; shortened tendons; deformed feet; weakened immune systems; dysfunctional hearts, brains, livers and kidneys; respiratory distress; and circulatory problems.

* Among the studies published just this year, one found a failure rate in animal cloning of over 90 percent, with over 40 percent of “successful” clones suffering from disabling health problems leading to early death.

http://ga3.org/campaign/Cloning

[Quakerfriend]

1. Thanks for posting this very important piece!!

Their refusal to label the cloned products is an absolute outrage. And, the American people need to wake up fast to what is going on.

[nam78_two]

2. K&R.bt

[TheWraith]

3. Out of curiousity, why is anybody worried about this?

If any of that information is true, then there would never be an issue of cloning meat and milk animals since it would be prohibitively expensive for less than no real benefit.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jcrowley]

7. Prohibitively expensive for who?

This is all subsidized.

The costs are passed on through the federal tax chain. The corporations will be profiting all the way along their abysmal failures.

And you should see the failure rate amongst GMO's. If you were are a farmer and had these rates of failure you'd be out of business in your first year. But these corporate AgriGiants get largess in the form of massive subsidies to fund their failures.

Remember the old dictum that these companies are more than willing to spend 7 dollars to get 6 dollars when that 7 dollars is yours.

[IndyOp]

4. The *only* reason I can think of that they want to clone animals -

is so they can genetically modify them so that cloned animals with "special features" can't reproduce and farmers/ranchers will have to buy new animals to raise - this is what they've done with seed.

It is a violation of nature. :(

[RC]

6. BINGO! We have a winna!

Cloning is just the first step. Genetically modified animals are the goal here.

Cloning is not GM. They are two separate and independent operations.

[w4rma]

11. The other reason is to grow human organs in them for transplants. (nt)

[Jcrowley]

12. That's right

For many years now scientists have been trying to genetically modify pigs so that they could grow organs suitable for transplant into humans - the procedure known as xenotransplantation.

There is currently a great shortage of organs from human donors, which could be solved by having a reliable supply from pigs.

Many people who need a kidney transplant have to spend years on dialysis waiting for a suitable organ to becomee available.

However the human immune system swiftly rejects tissue from ordinary pigs, because pigs produce a special sugar called alpha 1,3 galactose, which immune cells target.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2210306.stm

[PaulaFarrell]

58. Just as well they are rejected

Last thing we need is pig viruses loose in the human population. It is scary reading up about xenotransplantation. Anyone receiving these organs is essentially considerd a bio-risk for the rest of their life.

[Javaman]

56. also known as the suicide gene in farming...

you can thank the good bastards at monsanto for novel concept.

[fed-up]

8. I got that pic via a postcard from center for food safety a while ago. its on frig nt

[TexasLawyer]

9. kick

[flvegan]

10. Well, one could always choose to not eat them.

There IS a choice.

Oh, and anyone that thinks the *current* meat/dairy supply is "safe" I've got a GREAT deal on some Arizona waterfront property for you.

[NYC]

13. How would one know?

?

[flvegan]

14. Know what?

[in_cog_ni_to]

18. delete. responded to wrong post.

[flvegan]

20. Edit upon your edit. Please see below.

[in_cog_ni_to]

26. That's not the POINT. There are people in this country who don't have a damn clue

about cloned or GE foods...have never heard of it. THEY are the ones I worry about. I stopped eating meat when they decided to clone and not label and when the UK's cows had become immune to a bacteria strain because of all the damn antibiotics they used. It makes me ill just thinking about what they're doing to our food supply. It's sickening and they plan to sell it to unsuspecting/ill informed people.

[flvegan]

36. You're absolutely correct, IMO.

So, how do we give/get them a clue?

I think that all our food should be as forthright as possible. The when/where/how/what should be printed right on the damn package, no matter what you choose to eat.

[NYC]

23. Whether the food is from cloned animals.

Whether the food contains bovine growth hormone. Remember that? It was illegal to label milk as containing no bovine growth hormone. That way, consumers were denied a choice.

When tomatoes contained fish genes, were they labeled?

The way I see it, we have no choice.

[flvegan]

25. As to the topic, there is a choice

Topic being cloned meat/milk.

Don't eat it. If one doesn't know which is which, it seems like sound logic to avoid it altogether, or get the facts to make a good choice between the two.

[NYC]

28. That's why I stopped buying milk years ago.

I still think it is wrong not to label food. I think it is deliberately deceptive.

[flvegan]

32. I agree with you 100%

I think that when the regulators eliminate the need to require information, we're just asking for trouble.

[Jcrowley]

30. "Choice" is a myth

Support the Cloned Food Labeling Act in the House and Senate
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last month that the agency will likely approve the sale of cloned foods this year. FDA’s action flies in the face of widespread scientific concern about the risks of food from clones, and ignores the animal cruelty and troubling ethical concerns that the cloning process brings. What's worse, FDA indicates that it will not require labeling on cloned food, so consumers will have no way to avoid these experimental foods.

In response to FDA's pending approval, US Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) has introduced Senate Bill S.414, the Cloned Food Labeling Act, and U.S. House Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced an identical bill, H.R. 992, in the House just a few weeks later.

http://ga3.org/campaign/Cloning_Label

[flvegan]

34. No, it isn't.

If we're still talking about cloned meat, then one could choose to not eat meat.

Myth busted.

[in_cog_ni_to]

41. They can't choose to not eat cloned meat if they are meat eaters and don't know cloned meat is in

their supermarket. THAT is a fact. There is no choice put forth for people who DO eat meat and no NOTHING about cloned/GE foods. It's unethical. They should be told what they are eating.

[flvegan]

46. I agree.

I'm not making that argument. If one eats meat, then that person should be told EXACTLY where/how that food got to their plate.

[Jcrowley]

45. We're speaking about

what's in the food.

We are also speaking about cultural issues and control of people's perceptions.

The "choice" not to eat meat is also only something that is available through modern mass transportation fossil fuel burning industrial food systems. It is another of the myriad of false choices. And we haven't even touched upon the issue of poverty and food.

Choice is bullshit.

[flvegan]

47. Then OBEY on.

Since "choice is bullshit"

[gravity]

35. All milk contains bovine growth hormone

It is naturally produced in the cow.

[NYC]

37. I mean the additive.

Doesn't matter at this point. They lost a customer years ago.

[flvegan]

38. Sorta like saying everyone is on steroids because

we all have levels of testosterone in our bodies.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

15. give it a few years, and it will be waterfront

:hi:

[flvegan]

17. EXCELLENT point.

I should hold on to my real estate until then.

[in_cog_ni_to]

19. No. There is NO CHOICE. The bio/GE industry is refusing to LABEL the shit.

They just want to stick that crap in our supermarkets and not tell anyone it's cloned food. There will be no choice. If there was a choice, NO ONE would buy it! THAT is why they don't want any labels and because if the shit makes people sick....they could be SUED.

[flvegan]

22. I can block and copy as well...

There IS a choice...

Don't eat meat, don't ingest dairy. Or, shop local.

I know...a shocking thought.

[Jcrowley]

27. There are very few choices

for most of America.

I happen to have the option of eating local and knowing the practices used by my farmers. Most do not.

I say this not from merely speculation or even research but from extensive First-Hand experience.

It is simply false to suggest that there is a choice. Not only an oversimplification but completely wrong.

If you wish we can get more specific and go through the major cities of America and place by place examine the validity of your belief about this choice.

[flvegan]

43. One can choose

to not get their caloric needs from meat/dairy.

SOME of America does not have this option, based on location, or even upon monetary means. MOST of America...well, you've made an inaccurate statement there.

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. I had responded to the wrong post up above. Sheesh...can't you read?

That's why I deleted it and said so in the title. I responded to you up above.

[flvegan]

39. Sheesh, did you see my edit?

Can't you read?

[in_cog_ni_to]

42. no. I didn't see your edit.

:)

[flvegan]

44. NO???!!!!!

FREEEPPPERRRR!!!!!! You r'nt watching yer responsis!!! UR screwn up everything!

I kid, of course.

[gravity]

16. Clone animals are the same as normal animals

They have the same dna and same chemicals inside. What is the big deal?

[Jcrowley]

21. That is false

You must know that is patently false.

Have you taken an honest examination of the internal organ failure of cloned animals?

[gravity]

31. Cloning is still not perfect

but the clones are 100% identical genetically. If the clone is healthy, it is no different from another animal.

[Jcrowley]

40. That is false as well

I would suggest you investigate this matter further.

There has never been a healthy clone to date. Send me the correction to my statement.

Biology is not like Lego you can't just interfere with one aspect of an animal's system and expect the rest of the system to continue to function perfectly.

Hundreds and hundreds of cloned animals have been born and had malformed hearts, lungs or kidneys.

They have struggled to survive for a few days and then had their lungs filled with fluid and gasped their way to death or had to be put our of their misery by their creators.

That is the real story of cloning.

[gravity]

48. From popular science

Why do you think some people find the idea of eating cloned meat alarming?
People are unfamiliar with the technology. It’s misperception and lack of information.

No need to panic over a cloned burger?
From the scientific point of view, there’s no doubt that cloned beef is safe to eat. The FDA has reviewed hundreds of studies on this. There’s no reason to believe that meat coming from clones or their progeny is any different from traditional products.

Can clones really be as healthy as naturally born animals? Case in point: Dolly the sheep. She died young, right?
Yes, but she lived indoors and didn’t have the typical life of a sheep. Several clone mates of Dolly are approaching nine years old and doing fine.

One study on cloned pigs showed that 5 out of 10 died due to birth defects.
A lot of birth defects are related to poor technique. Our people are doing this three to four times per week, not a couple times per semester. The efficiency has to be high or it won’t work economically.

More: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/64b99082cc73d010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

[Jcrowley]

49. That's disinformation

and pretty transparent disinfo at that. As for Dolly they catered that creature like royalty and the problems were evident early on.

That's corporate propaganda.

[gravity]

50. I guess I can't win then

every single article used to refute you must be corporate propoganda.:sarcasm:

Here is a more scientific study.

Meat and milk compositions of bovine clones

Abstract
The technology is now available for commercial cloning of farm animals for food production, but is the food safe for consumers? Here, we provide data on >100 parameters that compare the composition of meat and milk from beef and dairy cattle derived from cloning to those of genetic- and breed-matched control animals from conventional reproduction. The cloned animals and the comparators were managed under the same conditions and received the same diet. The composition of the meat and milk from the clones were largely not statistically different from those of matched comparators, and all parameters examined were within the normal industry standards or previously reported values. The data generated from our match-controlled experiments provide science-based information desired by regulatory agencies to address public concerns about the safety of meat and milk from somatic animal clones.

Link : http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/18/6261

[Jcrowley]

55. So far

you are consistent in using industry propaganda.

FOOD SAFETY CONCERNS
Defects in cloned animals can escape detection but they still
present food safety risks. The National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) has stated that no method exists to detect subtle health
problems in clones.8 Ian Wilmut, lead scientist responsible for
creating Dolly, has warned that even slight imbalances in a
clone’s hormone, protein, or fat levels can compromise the
safety of its milk or meat.9 FDA claims that defective clones
will be removed from the food supply with no explanation of
how inspectors intend to identify hidden or subtle defects in
clones.

High doses of hormones and antibiotics used in cloning present
another significant safety concern. Host mothers are often
given massive doses of hormones and
their sickly offspring are often treated
with high levels of antibiotics and other
veterinary drugs to increase their
chances of survival. Although the commercialization
of cloning would likely
increase hormones and drugs in the
human food supply, FDA has failed to
address this important food safety issue.

MORE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH NEEDED
While the biotechnology industry has proclaimed the safety of
its cloned food products, few food safety studies have been conducted.
While FDA argues clones that survive six months are
healthy, MIT’s Jaenisch disagrees. He notes that: “Problems
appeared when cloned mice were 15 months old. You would
have to wait 15 years to in bulls.”10 As
this suggests, health problems can occur in older clones, and
many years of study are needed to assess cloning safety. A 2004
NAS study concluded that small sample sizes, limited health
and production data, and rapidly changing cloning protocols
make it impossible to draw conclusions about the safety of
food from cloned animals.11

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/fact%20sheet.pdf

Not to mention it is completely unnecessary and another scheme cooked up by industrial agri-business that hasn't a clue as to how one can farm within the constructs of our energy systems.

[RB TexLa]

24. Ugh! Science! Me don't like!

[BlooInBloo]

33. It's how DUers typically feel...

(Hey mods: What's remove-worthy about this post?)

[yewberry]

51. Well,

this post doesn't contain sweeping, negative generalizations about DUers and DU, so probably nothing.

[BlooInBloo]

52. It's all #5 said, which some whiny bitch complained about, and they actually yanked it.

[yewberry]

53. "Whiny bitch?"

Nice.

And no, that's not all #5 said.

[Nutmegger]

54. k

:kick:

[Karenina]

57. The corporations are poisoning the world

and as long as they are making money.

THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT!