If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it...

Later this week the Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue a long awaited decision to allow the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals.

Now according to all scientific testing so far, cloned food products are no different from natural food products. However, when polled about the subject, most folks don’t like the idea of eating anything with the word “cloned” attached to it.

I have to admit. I feel the same way. I realize cloning is the wave of the future. I realize the issue has been studied and will continue to be analyzed after the stuff hits the shelves for purchase.

I also realize that we have been eating genetically altered food stuffs for years. It just hasn’t come from cloned animals, yet.

I’m just, well, queasy about the idea. I don’t trust the source. I don’t trust the food stuffs. I don’t trust the scientists who clones the animals, who make the food, that I’m expected to buy and consume. The ultimate result in nearly all endeavors is to make money. And as we all know, some folks will do anything to make a buck.

We consumers are caught between a rock and hard place. Many of our health problems can be directly traced back to the food we eat and the fertilizers and growth hormones that are used to grow our food. The FDA is not the most vigilant of agencies, as we already know. Many of its rulings and approvals are political with little, or no regard for the consumer.

If we buy organically produced food, then we have to ransom our kids in order to buy it and to feed them. So, what do we do? Buy cloned food? Will it be cheaper? Will it be as wholesome as organic? Will it be healthier for us in the long run?

I guess, what I’m feeling is that the entire population is like a test rat living in a cage in some gigantic scientific testing facility. We’re being injected, poked and studied to see what will happen. The results take years to manifest. The same is true for the stuff we eat. It may take years to really tell what happens when we consume cloned food stuffs.

And one final question; given the regulations for what has to be put on a food label, will we even know that we’re eating cloned meat or drinking cloned milk?