Although the US Food and Drug Administration has already stated that cloned animals are safe to eat, there are currently no genetically engineered animals approved as food for human consumption by the FDA. That may soon change. The FDA updated their fact sheet on genetically engineered animals last week and have opened up a forum for public comments on the issue of genetically engineered and cloned animals showing up in grocery stores and on dinner plates.
Some of the issues the public might bring up during this short commenting process (see instructions below) include:
– Labeling of genetically engineered foods and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
– The environmental impact if a GMO was to escape and interbreed with natural plant and animal stocks
– Ethical, moral and religious implications of genetically engineering life, including animal cruelty issues
– The long-term, as of yet unknown, health effects of including genetically modified foods as a large portion of the human diet
If you would like to share your opinion on the issues above, or any other issue relating to genetically engineered foods, please Click Here and reference Docket ID FDA-2008-D-0394. The period for public commenting on this docket closes on November 18th, 2008. Please hurry and make your voice heard!
PS: Don’t let their intimidating form discourage you. Scroll down to “individual consumer” under the organization type box and list your first and last name under the organization name.
Our Comment to the FDA
As an American consumer I do not want genetically modified or genetically engineered organisms in the food supply. Even if the food was properly labeled, I do not trust either the FDA, USDA or food suppliers to keep 100% of the genetically altered stock out of the “unaltered” food supply by cross breeding.
My reasons for this are many, ranging from personal moral, ethical and religious beliefs to more substantive and justified concerns about the environment (i.e. GMOs escaping to reproduce with the wild stock) and health (i.e. long-term effects of human consumption in large quantities over decades). Other concerns include issues such as: The loss over time of “heritage breeds” and subsequent thinning of the gene pool; the potential for susceptibility to other diseases that are, as of yet, unforeseen; the potential for animal cruelty via genetic manipulation (i.e. featherless chickens to reduce plucking costs or a debilitating increase in meat mass on animals to increase yield).
Please DO NOT approve genetically engineered or genetically modified animals for use in our food supply. I beg you.
However, given the propensity of government organizations here in the US to pay more attention to lobbyists than its own citizens, I have no doubt that you will indeed approve the release of these genetically engineered animals into the food supply. In that case, I urge, beg, implore and insist that you ensure such products are clearly and properly labeled as such.
Kind regards,
Everett Sizemore
Editor – US Recall News
www.usrecallnews.com
I am absolutely against this INSANITY of GM food and animals..I ahve signed every petition,joined every group,and made tons of phone calls and sent mails.
I am trying to do my part…….I ahve been in the health industry for nearly 40 years.
When I see where all this GM is going it makes it hard to sleep nights.
we just ahve to keep on keeping on doing our part..
thanks for the time here..
Bobbie…in Oregon
I’m completely in opposition to your opposition. I think careful genetic manipulation can be safely used (and has been used in plant species already). We have an obligation to maximize the food yields vs. resource loads.
study genetics. understand that every plant we grow for food has undergone significant genetic modification through intensive selective breeding. If you really understood anything about genetics you wouldn’t be having this negative a response which, frankly, smells more of villagers shouting “burn the witch” then real concern for the integrity of our nation’s food supply.
Thank you. I will post your article on my website. I will post bulletins from now till the last day on myspace to get people to fill out the form.
To Andrew and Others:
It is not at all lost on me that farmers have been playing with genetic lineages since we first started cultivating plants and animals. But slowly promoting desired traits via selective breeding is NOT the same thing as genetically engineering an organism from point A to point W in a single generation. It is the difference between sculpting with a sharp knife VS a hatchet.
And as far as genetic manipulation via selective breeding goes, that has proved to be problematic as well. Ask any farmer who is trying to raise non-GMO crops and heritage breed chickens and they’ll tell you unadulterated stock is getting more and more difficult to find. Sure, the chickens you see in the store ready to be brought home and cooked can pack on huge amounts of mass in only a few months, but these “meat birds” can barely even walk, can’t forage, and can’t even reproduce without the help of a human being and a syringe. They lay around in their own feces all day in crowded cages, which is one of the reasons they require so much in the way of antibiotics.
I understand that there is an increasing population that needs to be fed and that standing in the way of progress isn’t often a good idea. But not every scientific advancement is “progress” and I happen to think our efforts are going in the wrong direction with this problem. There ARE other ways of addressing it. Globally there is plenty of food being produced. It’s the distribution that’s off – not the production.
I am not a luddite and I do value scientific advancement and research. This just happens to be one issue that I am against. We all have a right to our opinion, and to have that opinion heard – which is why I urge everyone to fill out the comment form on that docket number.
YOU SHOULD SAY NO!!!!!
I am studying to be a Genetic Engineer myself. I believe there is potential in genetic engineering, but I do not believe the science is mature enough to guarantee public safety. There have already been deaths related to allergens introduced into GM Foods (such as peanut proteins in corn) and in Canada it was shown that Pesticides produced by GM food remain in the food supply. There is significant evidence to show that such GM foods are different enough from organic produce to warrant labeling. Without the transparency of labels the medical community cannot fully document the health implications if any. Worse still, the negative views of the clearly dangerous ones are overshadowing the completely safe ones.
Carrots, for example, originally came in many colors. Each color from a different primary vitamin. Most other carrots went extinct about 100 years ago. Through a combination of Genetic Engineering and Breeding these extinct carrots have been brought back. Although technically genetically modified, we fully understand them and how our bodies will react to them. There is no chance of danger. Therefore I feel that we should have two different GM labels. One label would be for foods who receive genes from a member of the same family or an extinct variant. The other would be for GM crops that we simply do not know much about.
I will someday have a Masters in Biological Sciences: Genetics and Cellular Biology (Genetic Engineer) and even then I am sure I will support labeling of foods and stricter regulation.
First of all, I have to say genetically modified animals are safe and if a “pure” animal is crossed with a genetically modified one, it is a totally natural process. No person who modifies genetics goes to any extreme. They change the animals to have more desirable, and still totally natural, traits. It is literally the same thing as selective breeding. Except with a lot more science behaind it, and it produces more of the desireable traits in more animals.