Article: There You Go Again

[Guest guest]

Food for thought ... from a local TX farmer ....

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There You Go Again

 

by Glen Boudreaux, Jolie Vue Farms <http://www.jolievuefarms.com/> ,

Brenham, Texas

 

Remember the presidential debates of 1980 when Ronald Reagan responded

to an apparent misstatement by Carter of his position on Medicare with

the now famous line: " There you go again " ? Well, there goes the FDA and

USDA again. The " again " is the non-disclosure policy recently adopted by

our government designed to keep us in the dark about what we are eating.

First, with genetically-modified vegetables, now with cloned beef.

 

Orwell or Heller?

If you missed it, the Food and Drug Administration has approved cloned

beef for sale to us, the " eaters " , so long as we aren't told that we are

eating cloned beef. I can't tell if I'm reliving Orwell's 1984 or

Heller's Catch 22. Or is this the logical extension of Clinton's " Don't

ask, don't tell " policy. We can't ask and they can't tell.

 

Goodness gracious, what has happened to the democratic principle of an

educated and informed populace? And how in the world does our government

square this fake-food favoritism against the multitude of food labeling

mandates of the past? Why has the FDA decided to go back to a policy of

caveat emptor when disclosure has worked so well? I find myself in a

state of perpetual anomie with all of the government double-speak.

 

When the FDA announced its intention to study the safety of cloned beef,

its Director of the Center For Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Sundloff,

promised us this, and I quote in relevant part: " We want to make sure

the public is clearly informed [about the safety of cloned beef] " . Who

brain-washed him in the meantime?

 

How close is " pretty close " ?

Do we need to worry about whether cloned beef is safe, even while being

assured by our government agency that it is? Well, we just finished

reviewing Seeds of Deception, which spells out the risks associated with

introducing genetically-modified produce. The risk to humans and the

animal environment are the same, because predictability of result

encounters the same risks when trying to duplicate an animal as when we

are trying to modify then reproduce a tomato. That long DNA string has a

lot of ways to re-route the original prescription that we send it. If

you doubt that, just reflect on this model of equivocation announced by

one of Sundloff's lead investigators of cloned beef progeny: " In theory,

they're pretty close to identical twins " (emphasis mine).

 

In " theory " , not in fact? And how close is " pretty close " ?

 

The unannounced policy:Caveat Emptor

Let's review where the federal agencies have taken us so far as they

protect the Fake Food industry against the onslaught of the small family

farmer.

-Free Range means that a chicken has " access " to the out of doors,

even though we know from Michael Pollan that by the time the door is

opened, no self-respecting, cage-raised, over-fed and over-doped chicken

would even consider going outside.

-Natural means " minimally processed " . Whatever that means, it has no

relationship to the common understanding of the word.

-Organic now allows 60+ synthetic materials to be used in the " organic "

process.

-And genetically-modified tomatoes and cloned ribeyes are so safe

that it is better that we don't know that.

 

What you can do

I would have suggested that you write the FDA and the USDA, except I

already have done this many times. They never respond. Never. Not even a

form letter. Ditto Senator Cornyn, or my Congressman. The popular

Senator Bailey-Hutchinson does, even if it's just a form response (and

it is sometimes more than that), which probably explains her

overwhelming popularity in our state. Otherwise, I can only suggest that

you put a face on your food by shopping at the Houston Farmer's Market.

That's where you'll find full-disclosure. We stake our livelihood on it.

 

 

Yours in the local harvest, 1000s of miles fresher,

Glen Boudreaux