College Times

Media Credit: Michelle Kumata

Last month the FDA declared meat and "natural" products derived from cloned cattle, swine and goats to be safe for human consumption, giving the go ahead for bioengineers to continue playing God in their laboratories.

Currently, there are 570 cloned animals living in the US and with the FDA's latest approval, the numbers are sure to rise. What's happened to reason and morals? Has the FDA really lost it this time?

Birth is a natural process so why not just let it happen as it has for millions of years? Surely, they've heard the old saying, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." Better herds can be bred through the natural selective farming practices that breeders have been practicing for centuries.

There are plenty of poverty-stricken farmers across the country, and the world for that matter, that need outlets for their products - so why on earth would we want to genetically create animals and waste millions of dollars on the cloning process while depriving revenue from those who really need it?

This alone makes the decision a ridiculous one to me, then factor in the moral issues attached and I can't understand why this would be supported by anyone, let alone condoned by our government. I understand my opinion on this type of thing may be slightly one-sided, as a vegan in a meat-consuming world, but as someone with a general sense for right or wrong the idea of cloning definitely screams of wrong in my head.

The FDA reports that these animals would generally be used for breeding purposes, but really, in my opinion, how does this make it any better? These cloned animals will basically then be turned into little breeding machines. Yes, I understand we, as humans, are higher beings on the food chain, but does this mean that we just throw compassion out the window? My answer is an unequivocal no.

The FDA has also said that they will not require the packaging on these cloned products to be labeled. The reason: the FDA basically says there is no need for the public to be informed, because there are no known adverse health consequences.

When it comes to the dairy industry, the FDA has another absurd project in the works, the idea of banning dairy products from saying on their labels that they do not use milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone, a chemical which is used on some dairy farms to increase milk production, but may adversely harm the cow. There has been a lot of controversy about whether or not the growth hormone is dangerous for human consumption, but the FDA says it's not. Isn't the FDA's job to inform the public what they are consuming, whether or not they believe it to be harmful?

One company actively fighting this idea is the Vermont-based company Ben and Jerry's. On the company's website www.benjerry.com you can see the following statement that really in sums up the whole problem to me.

"It's a simple statement of our Company's values and our business practices. We believe RBGH, a genetically engineered hormone given to dairy cows to increase their milk production, is a step in the wrong direction toward a synthetic, chemically-intensive, factory-produced food supply. It also raises the risk of serious health problems in cows."

My point exactly. It should be up to the company and the consumer's discretion to decide what they want to produce or purchase these products based on more reasons than just human health ones. The freedom to choose is what this country is supposedly built on, so why then are we having our choices made for us?

Check out http://salsa.democracyinaction.org to let your own opinion be heard.

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