Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration determined that cloned animals are safe and able to enter into our food supply.  In fact, they determined that food from cloned animals — milk, meats, eggs, etc. – do not require special labeling, indicating their cloned origins.

As a vehement proponent of organic, local and sustainable agriculture, I find this decision morally reprehensible.  As a consumer, I have the right to know what my food is and where it comes from before purchasing it.  

By allowing cloned animal products to enter our food supply without proper testing for health and safety hazards (they only tested 4 pigs to make this determination), they take away my right to make informed buying decisions.

In addition, the cloned animals are unusually large, so the birthing parent can be injured during the pregnancy/delivery, which is just crewl.

I may have to resort to becoming predominantly vegetarian – and only buying meats from local farmers that I know and trust – to avoid consuming cloned food.

It is bad enough that companies like Montesano have created genetically modified seeds with poisons (pesticides) built into the plant DNA, or sterile seeds so farmers are completely dependant upon them.  It is even more disturbing that they have skirted the constitution and patented seeds — life forms (the implications of this are horrific).  Now, to flood our food supply with genetically modified animals “clones” is a horror I cannot accept.  Unfortunately, I feel somewhat helpless to change it.

I have written letters to my congressional representatives and state senators (one is running for President at the moment).  If you feel as strongly as I do about this atrocity to our food supply, please take action.

Below is an excerpt from the Organic Consumer’s Association Newsletter, if you are as mortified as I am by the FDA’s decision, please click the link below and sign the petition...

ALERT OF THE WEEK:
PUT THE NATURAL BACK IN MEATS LABELED AS "NATURALLY RAISED"
Polls indicate that the average consumer believes meat labeled "Naturally Raised" comes from animals that have spent their drug-free lives freely roaming the pastures of a family farm, eating grass and hay, and being (at least somewhat) humanely slaughtered. A 2007 Consumer Reports survey found that 83% of consumers assume a "naturally raised" label means it came from an animal raised in a natural environment. In stark contrast, the USDA, bowing, as usual, to pressure from corporate agribusiness, has released a standard for "Naturally Raised" meats that is so weak and misleading it would apply to a cloned animal, weaned on pig or cow blood plasma, raised in the confines of a factory farm, and fed a steady diet of genetically engineered grains. The public comment period on this labeling standard only lasts until January 28, so take action now before yet another fraudulent label becomes as ubiquitous as corporate lobbyists on Capitol Hill.

Take action:  http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9692.cfm/