The Uncomfortable Truth

Isn’t it rich?
Wouldn’t you say?
They’re playing games with our health;
The FDA.
Where are the clones?

Isn’t it bliss?
Nothing to lose.
Big biz is taking away
Our right to choose.
Send in the clones.
They’re sending us clones.*

Seriously though.
The FDA announced yesterday that food from cloned animals was safe.
The article I read mentioned that consumer anxiety is serious enough that several producers won’t sell products from cloned animals because people won’t eat them.
But, how can you tell if your food is as God intended?
Worry no more.
Your government—who always has your best interests at heart--has decided that you don’t need to know.
Their scientists have decided that there is no difference in the products of cloned animals, so there is no need to label them.
Uh-huh.
These are the same folks that said giving milk cows bovine somatropic hormone (BST) would have no effect on consumers.
Tell that to the parents of an eight-year old girl who is menstruating.
My point here is not whether the products are safe.
The point is that if we want to choose a different product, we are stymied.
The reason is obvious: If people choose not to buy “frankenfood,” it would hurt sales.
Can’t have that, can we?
It could hurt the bottom line!
This is not the first time that the FDA has put profit before health.
When Tylenol was first introduced, some of the people in the FDA noted that too much—especially when mixed with alcohol--would cause liver failure. They thought that important piece of information ought to be on the label. When the manufacturer noted such a label would “hurt sales,” the FDA relented. And people died. Many people.
One of them was my wife.
The fiasco with Vioxx also comes to mind.
The article also mentioned that the FDA was not alone. The Europeans came to the same conclusion last week.
Small wonder. European consumers have long-opposed frankenfoods.
In the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, (GATT) there are rules that say the signatories may not halt the shipment of foodstuffs without a good reason. In order to keep the wheels rolling, the European version of the FDA had no choice but to acquiesce to the demands of business—at the possible expense of consumer safety.
I wonder how the typical European consumer will react. They are not quite as accepting of their government’s [blather] as we are.
But then, they don’t have FOX news.
I am not opposed to doing everything one can to increase one’s profit. But there ought to be reasonable limits. Not endangering the public’s health is a reasonable limit. The folks who would feed us this stuff make a handsome enough profit already.
How much is enough?
I don’t know if eating cloned foods will hurt me or not.
I do know I cannot trust the FDA.
I also know what won’t hurt me:
Having a label on my food.

*Sorry, Mr. Sondheim. I couldn’t resist