The bottom line, whether deemed safe or not by the FDA, is this. I should have the right to decide for myself whether I want to put something into my body or not and I should not be forced into taking the FDA's word for it that it is safe. By not labeling, my right has been taken away to CHOOSE. Choice is what America is supposedly all about..."the land of the free". Right!
Think about how many products now have labels or warning labels or have completely been taken off the market that were once approved and deemed "safe" by the FDA. I refuse to be so naive as to think that since the FDA says it's "safe", then gee, "it must be true". Please! "Big business" in the United States will claim anything to make a dollar. Like the other poster said, "The FDA would approve the consumption of toxic waste if they could get away with it and thought it would be profitable".
I read in an article somewhere that a 14 week diet of cloned meat was fed to mice, so the consumption of cloned meat and milk by humans was deemed "safe" based on this! Can you believe that?!?! A mere 14 weeks does not determine the long-term health risks of anything. It may take years for something potentially dangerous to finally cause heart disease or cancer; not a mere 14 weeks. Consuming trans fats for 14 weeks won't necessarily cause you to kill over and die either, but does that mean that the consumption of trans fats is healthy? Not hardly!
Trans fats or partially hydrogenated oil was once "FDA approved" and required no labeling. After years of the American public being trans fat guinea pigs, the FDA finally required food companies to label trans fats as of Jan. 2006 now that there is enough evidence to prove its harmful effects. (The evidence existed long before it was even approved by the FDA!...Read the research!) The sad thing is though that just like there are currently studies showing the potential harm of cloned meat and milk that the FDA is choosing to ignore, there were also studies showing the potential harm of trans fats that the FDA also ignored until they couldn't ignore it any longer. Are we going to have to be guinea pigs for cloned meat and milk for years and years like we were for trans fats before labeling is ever required?
And the scary thing is this. There is a way to test a product to be able to know if there are trans fats in a product. However, there is no way of testing milk or meat to know if it came from a cloned animal, offspring from a cloned animal, or a natural animal. Even at a slaughterhouse, there is no way of knowing if the cow that is about to be slaughtered is a clone or a natural. So what does this mean? Well to me it means that there is the possibility of lying about a meat or milk product being from a natural animal and it actually be from a cloned animal.
Think about how delicate the neurological system is of a baby. (Think vaccines and autism!) Could you imagine feeding milk from a cloned cow to your newborn baby?! Especially when there are no studies to show the long-term side effects...I don't think so!
The American people have got to wake up! Just because something is "FDA approved", that doesn't mean it is safe. From what I've seen, things are usually "FDA approved" first, then later on, after we have served as guinea pigs for years, then that same product that was once "FDA approved" is found to be "unsafe". But even then, not unsafe enough to take off the market half the time, as it may cut into someone's PROFIT, but only unsafe enough to require labeling like trans fats!
Take a look at some other places in the world. So many of the things in the food supply of the United States have been banned in other countries, or at least require very strict labeling. Take Europe for example. Genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered food in European countries is a HUGE deal! However, in the United States, we're lucky if people even know what GM foods are. Our government and "big business" (pharmaceutical companies, FDA, media, etc.) wants to keep us ignorant and uneducated of these things so we will keep quiet while they fill their pockets with big profit at the expense of your and my health! (Notice how the general public isn't even aware that the FDA is taking comments about this matter via petition on their website. It could be announced by the media, but there are so many money/profit connections between big business and the media that the media can't risk it. Notice how the FDA announced the approval of cloned meat and milk without labeling on Dec. 28, 2006; during the holidays when people are on vacation and NOT watching the news or reading newspapers.) Take a notice the next time you're watching TV of how many prescription drug advertisements there are during commercials. Even the media is controlled by money!
People, Vioxx was once "FDA approved" as well. There are studies that have existed before FDA approval of some products that showed potential harmful side effects and yet these studies were and still are being ignored by the FDA and become approved anyway for the sake of money and profit.
The only way people can avoid the chemical-laden food anymore these days is to become fishermen and farmers themselves or to buy everything organic from health food stores which the average citizen can not afford; which leaves us with no choice but to resort to the processed, packaged foods, genetically modified fruits and vegetables, the bovine growth hormone-antibiotic laden meat, the pasteurized-homogenized nutrient damaged milk, and the MSG-trans fat laden foods that fill the shelves in our supermarkets.
What can we do about all this?
Well here is what my husband and I have done or are in the process of doing. My husband and I live in a very small, rural town, unincorporated town. My husband is a fisherman, so we eat wild caught seafood (although even here we have to be careful of certain fish that we eat because some are high in mercury due to the mercury released in our bodies of water from industry/power plants). We exercise and eat as healthy as possible to avoid chemical-laden, synthetic, man-made, liver-killing, disease-causing, profit-driven prescription drugs. We have bought enough land to grow our own fruits and vegetables from non-GM seeds that are free of pesticides and other sprays. We consistently write our congressmen and senators about these matters. We write to the editor of our local newspaper about these matters. We sign every petition available. We plan to boycott meat and milk once cloned food products begin to hit the shelves until labeling becomes available, and even then we won't trust it as there is as of now no way to prove whether it really came from a natural or cloned animal. In order to be able to continue to eat meat, eventually, we are going to invest in a few cows, goats, and pigs of our own; enough to supply the needs of our family. And last but not least, we have went to the FDA website and submitted comments on a docket/petition that the FDA is offering about cloned animals. If the American people will come together and fight against this, we can slowly but surely make changes, one step at a time. The FDA is only taking comments on this matter through 4/10/07. Below is the name of the docket at the FDA website and the website where it can be accessed:
Science Buzz and all related activities
The bottom line, whether deemed safe or not by the FDA, is this. I should have the right to decide for myself whether I want to put something into my body or not and I should not be forced into taking the FDA's word for it that it is safe. By not labeling, my right has been taken away to CHOOSE. Choice is what America is supposedly all about..."the land of the free". Right!
Think about how many products now have labels or warning labels or have completely been taken off the market that were once approved and deemed "safe" by the FDA. I refuse to be so naive as to think that since the FDA says it's "safe", then gee, "it must be true". Please! "Big business" in the United States will claim anything to make a dollar. Like the other poster said, "The FDA would approve the consumption of toxic waste if they could get away with it and thought it would be profitable".
I read in an article somewhere that a 14 week diet of cloned meat was fed to mice, so the consumption of cloned meat and milk by humans was deemed "safe" based on this! Can you believe that?!?! A mere 14 weeks does not determine the long-term health risks of anything. It may take years for something potentially dangerous to finally cause heart disease or cancer; not a mere 14 weeks. Consuming trans fats for 14 weeks won't necessarily cause you to kill over and die either, but does that mean that the consumption of trans fats is healthy? Not hardly!
Trans fats or partially hydrogenated oil was once "FDA approved" and required no labeling. After years of the American public being trans fat guinea pigs, the FDA finally required food companies to label trans fats as of Jan. 2006 now that there is enough evidence to prove its harmful effects. (The evidence existed long before it was even approved by the FDA!...Read the research!) The sad thing is though that just like there are currently studies showing the potential harm of cloned meat and milk that the FDA is choosing to ignore, there were also studies showing the potential harm of trans fats that the FDA also ignored until they couldn't ignore it any longer. Are we going to have to be guinea pigs for cloned meat and milk for years and years like we were for trans fats before labeling is ever required?
And the scary thing is this. There is a way to test a product to be able to know if there are trans fats in a product. However, there is no way of testing milk or meat to know if it came from a cloned animal, offspring from a cloned animal, or a natural animal. Even at a slaughterhouse, there is no way of knowing if the cow that is about to be slaughtered is a clone or a natural. So what does this mean? Well to me it means that there is the possibility of lying about a meat or milk product being from a natural animal and it actually be from a cloned animal.
Think about how delicate the neurological system is of a baby. (Think vaccines and autism!) Could you imagine feeding milk from a cloned cow to your newborn baby?! Especially when there are no studies to show the long-term side effects...I don't think so!
The American people have got to wake up! Just because something is "FDA approved", that doesn't mean it is safe. From what I've seen, things are usually "FDA approved" first, then later on, after we have served as guinea pigs for years, then that same product that was once "FDA approved" is found to be "unsafe". But even then, not unsafe enough to take off the market half the time, as it may cut into someone's PROFIT, but only unsafe enough to require labeling like trans fats!
Take a look at some other places in the world. So many of the things in the food supply of the United States have been banned in other countries, or at least require very strict labeling. Take Europe for example. Genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered food in European countries is a HUGE deal! However, in the United States, we're lucky if people even know what GM foods are. Our government and "big business" (pharmaceutical companies, FDA, media, etc.) wants to keep us ignorant and uneducated of these things so we will keep quiet while they fill their pockets with big profit at the expense of your and my health! (Notice how the general public isn't even aware that the FDA is taking comments about this matter via petition on their website. It could be announced by the media, but there are so many money/profit connections between big business and the media that the media can't risk it. Notice how the FDA announced the approval of cloned meat and milk without labeling on Dec. 28, 2006; during the holidays when people are on vacation and NOT watching the news or reading newspapers.) Take a notice the next time you're watching TV of how many prescription drug advertisements there are during commercials. Even the media is controlled by money!
People, Vioxx was once "FDA approved" as well. There are studies that have existed before FDA approval of some products that showed potential harmful side effects and yet these studies were and still are being ignored by the FDA and become approved anyway for the sake of money and profit.
The only way people can avoid the chemical-laden food anymore these days is to become fishermen and farmers themselves or to buy everything organic from health food stores which the average citizen can not afford; which leaves us with no choice but to resort to the processed, packaged foods, genetically modified fruits and vegetables, the bovine growth hormone-antibiotic laden meat, the pasteurized-homogenized nutrient damaged milk, and the MSG-trans fat laden foods that fill the shelves in our supermarkets.
What can we do about all this?
Well here is what my husband and I have done or are in the process of doing. My husband and I live in a very small, rural town, unincorporated town. My husband is a fisherman, so we eat wild caught seafood (although even here we have to be careful of certain fish that we eat because some are high in mercury due to the mercury released in our bodies of water from industry/power plants). We exercise and eat as healthy as possible to avoid chemical-laden, synthetic, man-made, liver-killing, disease-causing, profit-driven prescription drugs. We have bought enough land to grow our own fruits and vegetables from non-GM seeds that are free of pesticides and other sprays. We consistently write our congressmen and senators about these matters. We write to the editor of our local newspaper about these matters. We sign every petition available. We plan to boycott meat and milk once cloned food products begin to hit the shelves until labeling becomes available, and even then we won't trust it as there is as of now no way to prove whether it really came from a natural or cloned animal. In order to be able to continue to eat meat, eventually, we are going to invest in a few cows, goats, and pigs of our own; enough to supply the needs of our family. And last but not least, we have went to the FDA website and submitted comments on a docket/petition that the FDA is offering about cloned animals. If the American people will come together and fight against this, we can slowly but surely make changes, one step at a time. The FDA is only taking comments on this matter through 4/10/07. Below is the name of the docket at the FDA website and the website where it can be accessed:
Docket Number & Title: 2006P-0415 - Petition Seeking Regulation of Cloned Animals
Comment Period End Date: 04/10/07