Sunday, August 14, 2011

No labels for Cloned meat products





Families buying meat for barbecues are unlikely to be aware of their food's controversial links because the labels on packaging will be no different from normal meat.
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Campaigners for new controls were defeated after 12 hours of talks between the 27 EU states and the European Parliament failed to agree a law to manage the industry.
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The failure to toughen legislation means that so-called "Frankenfoods" - which come from ancestors whose DNA was altered - could be on supermarket shelves in the UK within months, subject to approval.
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Scores of dairy cows from cloned parents are already being reared on British farms.
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Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, was one of the voices against imposing new controls and labelling, claiming that it could ignite a trade war with the US, Argentina and Brazil, where such products are routinely farmed and sold.
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The problem is not the fact that clone-derived meat is sold; it's the fact that it won't be labelled. 
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Why won't it be labelled? 
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Because business leaders realise that consumers will reject it. 
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We should be allowed to choose whether or not we want to support this type of intensive agriculture. 
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The decision to allow unlabelled clone-derived meat will work against livestock farmers in the long term, with more people deciding to be vegetarian because they feel they cannot trust the source of the meat on supermarket shelves.
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There will be a few consumers who will take the precautionary route and reject meat totally, others are just too lazy to bother. 
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However, this could be an opportunity for domestic producers to market a "definitely not cloned," brand. 
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If they get the pricing right and do not go over the top in claiming premium status, as many early "organic" producers did with just average quality produce, they would not only give themselves an edge in terms of consumer confidence but in time their "pure" breeds and their offspring may well be in great demand to replace the sick and degenerate herds elsewhere
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Yet another example of politicians bowing to industry pressure.
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Why should consumers be kept from knowing what they are really buying?
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No reason except money
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No one can seriously argue that consumers have no right to know what they are buying
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Except of course when it is clear that most do not want to buy clone altered products.
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Sick people who force consumers to buy products that are not tested against long term impact or effect on the human system.
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The long term effects are unknown
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Where long term effects are unknown then common sense dictates caution and clear indication that possible harmful effects are unknown.

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