Support Amendment to Stop Animal Cloning in the Farm Bill!

[Guest guest]

Support Amendment to Stop Animal Cloning in the Farm Bill! Dear Jan,The FDA will soon make a final decision on whether food from cloned animals is safe to enter our food supply. They released their preliminary risk assessment in December and received over 145,000 public comments opposing the unlabeled introduction of meat and milk from animal clones. We need to know more before the FDA releases cloned animals into our food supply. The health risks associated with the consumption of food products from cloned animals is not well documented or available to consumers. Denmark has already banned food from cloned animals and the entire European Union is examining this closely. The California state legislature recently passed a bill requiring labeling of products from clones animals, and though the Governor vetoed it, it is a clear sign that consumers do not want this technology on their plates. To address these concerns, Senators Mikulski and Specter have introduced an amendment (Amendment #3524) to the Farm Bill to address the need for more information about food products from cloned animals. The studies focus on elements not included in the FDA initial risk assessment: * Implications of permitting food from cloned animals into the food supply, particularly meat and milk exports shifts that would take place as other countries react and potentially ban exports from the United States; * Effectiveness of programs already in place at USDA to monitor food products from cloned animals; * Documentation of the health effects and costs attributed to milk from cloned animals in the food supply; and * Evaluation of the potential public health effects and associated health care costs attributable to the commercialization of food from cloned animals The FDA should not be permitted to issue the final risk assessment on the safety of cloned animals and food products derived from cloned animals until these studies are done. Please take action today! Contact your Senators and tell them you SUPPORT Senator Mikulski and Specter’s amendment (#3524) to delay cloning until we know more. Send a letter to the following decision maker(s): Your Senators Below is the sample letter:Support amendment #3524 on cloned animalsDear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],I am writing to urge your support for the Mikulski-Specter amendment (# 3524) to the Senate version of the Farm Bill addressing the need for more information on food products from cloned animals.The studies in the Mikulski-Specter amendment focus on elements not included in the FDA initial risk assessment:* Implications of permitting food from cloned animals into the food supply, particularly meat and milk exports shifts that would take place as other countries react and potentially ban exports from the United States; * Effectiveness of programs already in place at USDA to monitor food products from cloned animals; * Documentation of the health effects and costs attributed to milk from cloned animals in the food supply; and * Evaluation of the potential public health effects and associated health care costs attributable to the commercialization of food from cloned animals FDA released their preliminary risk assessment in December and received over 145,000 public comments opposing the unlabeled introduction of meat and milk from animal clones. Denmark has already banned food from cloned animals and the entire European Union is examining this closely.Additionally, many farmers and food exporters worry that the unregulated and premature introduction of food products from cloned animals could affect adversely the domestic economy and food producers' ability to trade internationally. In addition, the health risks associated with the consumption of food products from cloned animals are documented poorly and the information needed by consumers remains unavailable. Congress should prohibit the FDA from issuing the final risk assessment on the safety of cloned animals and food products derived from cloned animals until these studies are done. Please support this amendment to delay the introduction of risky foods from animal clones until we know more. Sincerely,Jan SlamaTake Action!Instructions:Click here to take action on this issue Tell-A-Friend:Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-Friend! What's At Stake:Animal cloning is a new technology with potentially severe risks for food safety. Defects in clones are common, and cloning scientists warn that even small imbalances in clones could lead to hidden food safety problems in clones' milk or meat. There are few studies on the risks of food from clones, and no long-term food safety studies have been done. Further, the pregnancy complications in cloning cause unnecessary suffering for host mothers, and clones commonly develop with severe deformities and health problems, such as grossly oversized calves, enlarged tongues, squashed faces, intestinal blockages, immune deficiencies, diabetes, high rates of heart and lung damage, kidney failure and brain abnormalities. Opinion polls show that the majority of Americans do not want food from animal clones and that they are opposed to cloning on moral or ethical grounds. The Center for Food Safety has called on FDA to ban the use of clones in food production until the food safety and animal cruelty problems in cloning have been resolved, and until public discussions have addressed the troubling ethical issues that cloning brings. We also call on FDA and Congress, in the result that these pre-conditions can be met, to require mandatory labeling of food from animal clones. Read the Mikulski-Specter amendment (PDF)Read more about animal cloning on our web siteView our fact sheet on cloned animals (PDF)View the CFS report Not Ready for Prime Time: FDA's Flawed Approach to Assessing the Safety of Food from Animal Clones (PDF) Campaign Expiration Date:November 21, 2007 If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Center for Food Safety. This message was sent to janslama. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop ALL email from Center for Food Safety,