ATTENTION MEAT EATERS: You May Be Eating Meat From Cloned Animals & Government Won’t Tell You Whether It Is Or Not - RI10

ATTENTION MEAT EATERS:

You May Be Eating Meat

From Cloned Animals &

Government Won’t Tell You

Whether It Is Or Not - RI10

 

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MALVEAUX: Milk and meat from cloned animals could soon be coming to your grocery store, and you may not even know it.

HENRY: The Food and Drug Administration now is giving the go- ahead to food made from cloned animals, saying it's almost impossible to distinguish from regular food.

So, products from clones may not even get a special label.

Joining us now, our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, today, the FDA basically said that food from cloned animals is safe to eat.

Walk us through from a medical standpoint. How did they reach that conclusion?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Ed, it's pretty fascinating, actually. We listened in to the conference that they had just a few minutes ago about this, talking specifically about the fact that they have looked at years, four years, worth of data, hundreds of studies on cloned animals, their offspring, and the food that they make, basically trying to determine if it's safe, or, more specifically, if they pose any additional risks.

And what they concluded was that they don't pose any additional risks, and also point out that there's only a few hundred cloned animals out there, just cattle, pigs and goats, as compared to the millions of animals that exist performed by natural selection. But this was not a specific -- no -- no decision was made today, Ed. There's still a voluntary moratorium that's going to stay in place until April 2. It's going to allow a public discourse on this. A lot of people find this quite controversial. They're going to allow the public to actually

have a conversation about this to determine exactly

how this should be carried out.

Tabacco: Gee, how kind and thoughtful of our government! Tabacco already has the gout. I may become an actual vegetarian after April 2007.

Should cloned food, food from cloned animals and their offspring, be allowed? And should it be labeled? These are two decision points that are still going to need to be made.

MALVEAUX: Well, Sanjay, in light of that fact, are there any advantages, or pros, to having the -- the meat or the milk from these cloned animals in the food supply?

GUPTA: Yes. Yes, I think that that sort of strikes at the heart of this, Suzanne.

I mean, I think that, if you ask people who are advocates of this, they will say there are significant benefits. First of all, cloned animals, they will say, are really, after the first six to 18 months, indistinguishable from any other animal.

If they're born with genetic mutations, usually, those things declare themselves in the first six to 18 months of their life -- also, you know, that cloning allows -- and I think this is the most important point -- allows exceptional animals to be bred.

Tabacco: “USUALLY” is NO GUARANTEE! People need to be concerned about the EXCEPTIONS, NOT THE RULE!

So, for example, if you have an animal that makes a lot of milk, or makes particularly good meat, you can allow that animal to continuously be bred. And this exists in other modalities already on ranches today, through invitro fertilization, in other assisted reproductive technology. They say cloning is just another adjunct to that.

And, finally, the meat and milk, most likely, will come from the offspring of the animal, not the clones themselves. The cloned animals are basically the breeders. They're the ones who are creating this sort of super-generation of animals after that.

HENRY: Now, Sanjay, you mentioned this is controversial, though. And one of the controversies is about labeling. And there are consumer advocates out there who have sharp concerns about this. Can you walk through that? GUPTA: Yes.

And, you know, it's important to reiterate again that this -- this may be one of the sort of biggest friction points in this whole thing. And no decision has been made on labeling as of yet, although, listening, again, just a little bit ago, to the conference, they talked specifically about the idea that it's unlikely that there will be labeling on this.

Let me tell you a couple of things, first of all. There are -- there are specific concerns. They say that the -- the food has not been tested in humans. Sure, there have been a lot of studies on the safety of the animals and the safety of the food. But it actually has not been given to humans in large quantities. And it's only four years worth of data. Maybe that's not enough.

Also, cloned animals often are born sick or deformed. And that's obviously of concern to people who might eat the offspring of those animals. As far as the labeling goes itself, you know, some people believe, look, you put an inherent bias against the food if you label it as cloned. Somehow, you're making a statement that, well, it's cloned, and, therefore, it's different.

The FDA, at least in their -- in their recommendations today, are saying, there really is no difference in safety. There's no increase in risk from cloned animals, so why label it?

But you're -- but you're exactly right, Ed. It's bound to be a friction point over the next few months.

MALVEAUX: And, Sanjay, just to be clear, we're not actually going to be seeing any of these kind of food products in the food chain, at our markets any time soon; this is a debate that's continuing?

GUPTA: Yes, exactly right.

And this is sort of the fascinating way of handling this as well. What they have done is, they say, over the next few months, they're going to allow a public discourse. There's going to be a moratorium. So, you're right. You won't see these cloned food products or offspring cloned food products on your -- on your shelves, in your grocery stores, for some time.

They're going to allow people to discuss this and make some recommendations, probably in April, as to how to proceed.

MALVEAUX: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, senior medical correspondent, in THE SITUATION ROOM, thanks so much for joining us, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you. Thank you.

HENRY: And coming up: We're now learning the late President Ford felt invading Iraq was a big mistake. We will get more from his former adviser, David Gergen.

MALVEAUX: And Somalia's capital in chaos, as government troops advance and Islamic fighters retreat. We will take you there.

Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0612/28/sitroom.02.html




Tabacco: It is very rare indeed that the Bush administration even gives

the public time to analyze what they are up to. The Free Trade

Agreements are the prime examples of this propensity.  So if you distrust

eating cloned meat and drinking cloned milk the way I do, you had

better speak up now before it’s too late.  And remember this: If products

from cloned animals are NOT LABELED, how will you sue anyone

successfully when the SIDE EFFECTS become known in 5 to 15 years?

You won’t even be able to prove you ate cloned meats.



Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness!

In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".

 

T.A.B.A.C.C.O.  (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)

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