You may have forgotten about the FDA's "collaboration" with a pair of animal cloning companies in their recent tentative approval of cloned meats and milk coming soon to your grocery store. That didn't stop concerned parties from filing nearly 12,000 comments with the FDA, a period that ended late last week.
Despite ongoing concerns Americans have about cloning animals for food, the FDA will likely release a final draft of the "risk assessment" of cloned foods very soon.
Unfortunately, that will pave the way for companies like the five-year-old Austin-based ViaGen to clean up, of course, at the expense of your health. Moreover, CEO Mark Walton claims the market for ranchers seeking to clone their top producing farm animals in the neighborhood of $500 million and his company expects to double their production of clones this year.
Fact is, you may have already seen cloned animals and didn't even know it. While awaiting final approval from the FDA, ViaGen has kept busy by cloning horses used in rodeos and show animals.
It's important to note here that the average person was found to be far more comfortable with genetically modified foods than cloned foods, according to a late 2006 study from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.
Congressional leaders proposed a bill in February that would require foods made from cloned animals to be clearly labeled, even though that may be a moot point, according to various biotech companies. All the more reason, to think local when it comes to obtaining wholesome foods.
Austin American-Statesman May 4, 2007