Free Roaming Sheep (photo by Bianca Meyer, courtesy of morguefile.com)

It seems U.S. government agencies have unsettled differences when it comes to the safety of cloned animlas in the American food supply. Even though the USDA strictly bans the use of cloned animals and their offspring from the production of organic food, the FDA insists, "...meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day."

In light of the numerous health warnings and recalls of foods sold to American consumers, we don't find the assurances of the FDA to be at all reassuring.

The Center for Food Safety, a non-profit public interest organization, has stated, “Given the lack of data regarding human health impacts, CFS believes the FDA was premature in pronouncing food from cloned animals to be safe to eat."

An article in the Washington Post by Rick Weiss offers the following troublesome news:

Executives from the nation's major cattle cloning companies conceded yesterday that they have not been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply, despite a years-old request by the FDA to keep them off the market pending completion of the agency's safety report.

At least one Kansas cattle producer also disclosed yesterday that he has openly sold semen from prize-winning clones to many U.S. meat producers in the past few years, and that he is certain he is not alone.

According to the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit farm policy research group, the realities of cloning include some disturbing phenomena:

• 64% of cattle, 40% of sheep, and 93% of cloned mice exhibit some form of abnormality, with a large percentage of the animals dying during gestation or shortly after birth
• High rates of late abortion and early prenatal death, with failure rates of 95% to 97% in most mammal cloning attempts
• Defects such as grossly oversized calves, enlarged tongues, squashed faces, intestinal blockages, immune deficiencies, and diabetes
• When cloning does not produce a normal animal, many of the difficult pregnancies cause physical suffering or death to the surrogate mothers

Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute says:

Regardless of what the proponents claim this is all about bottom-line profit and producing more and more of our food from giant industrial-scale farming operations. We are getting so, so far away from farmer Jones and the intimate connection between the land, animals, and the people who care for them in a sustainable and regenerative system. I wish I could say this was science fiction.

If you'd like to read the Washington Post article cited above go to: USDA Recommends That Food From Clones Stay Off the Market

To learn more about this & other food safety issues click on the following organizations:
The Cornucopia Institute
Center for Food Safety
Organic Consumers Association
Consumers Union
USDA’s National Organic Program