Ayurveda On Cloned Meat and Dairy

Just this Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared that healthy clones of cows, pigs and goats are safe for human consumption.

The whole purpose behind these cloning experiments is to improve the DNA of the animal. The ultimate goal: Healthier meat and dairy products. The realistic result: Who knows?

As Senator Barbara Mikulski put it in a written statement: "The FDA has acted recklessly and I am profoundly disappointed in their rush to approve cloned foods."

"Thorough" testing has included only 600 cloned animals. 570 of them are cattle. I guess 30 pigs and goats was enough of a trial run to deem them safe..

An Ayurvedic Perspective

Of course, in ancient times, cloning wasn't an issue. So there are no specific comments made on the science of cloning in the Ayurvedic text books.

On the other hand, Ayurveda is a live science, and alive today. We can apply that knowledge to determine whether something is wholesome for the human body.

As of Tuesday, we have these new, genetically modified meats and dairy products approved for the general public. These foods have undergone changes at a genetic level. That's a fact... or they wouldn't have bothered cloning them in the first place. They are trying to improve livestock so that it grows faster, tastes better, produces more milk... whatever.

(It's amusing and scary to note, that when passing these new life forms the FDA states that "there is no material difference between them and food produced by conventional methods." Hypocrisy! On the other side of this gold coin opportunity, they state that the cloned breeds are healthier and stronger. The same thing happened with GMO crops. It got passed by the FDA because it wasn't "different." Then it gets patented because it's totally unique.)

They may be very good changes. Let's assume they are for a minute (which is a BIG assumption). The main issue, though, is that when these new foods hit the market, consumers will be going overnight from all natural to new and improved.

These New Foods May Throw Your Body Into a Fight or Flight Mode

From an Ayurvedic perspective those changes are too fast. It puts a toll on the body. It throws it into the high-adrenal "flight-or-fight" state.

I don't know how these new genetic encodings are going to affect those who consume it. Especially over a long period of time. Especially since genetic modification is such a haphazard science today. Altering DNA is usually done by "shooting" in new strands with the help of an E. coli virus. It's pretty primitive. They may make positive improvements to the DNA, and in the process they may make damaging, alien changes.

We're messing with genes at a microscopic level. We have no idea what kind of chronic stress this is going to put on our physiology and the animals' physiology. And when these cloned foods breakdown inside our bodies, they'll become part of our bodies.

Far Too Many Unknowns

In short, there are simply far too many unknowns about something that is a very complicated subject. They've not even tested a 1000 animals and it's already been approved for human consumption. Most of the analysis of the meat and dairy has been done in laboratories. They're checking superficial points like the nutritional content.

The real experiment will start when these cloned animals produce offspring and those offspring start showing up on people's dinner tables. If you're in Canada, you're in luck, cloned meat and dairy has not been approved by Health Canada. Europe, however, has already given the go ahead.

And, no labeling is being required. The only safe route, if you eat meat, or buy dairy, is to go organic. Certified organic meat and dairy will not be modified genetically. Of course, until cross-breeding starts taking place, like we are seeing with genetically modified foods.

We are risking contaminating the entire species of these animals.

Splicing Up India's Symbol of Nurture

On another note, the idea of cloning and modifying cow DNA strikes an Indian chord in my heart. As you know, in India the cow is a symbol of the Divine Mother -- the symbol of nurturing for the human race. Cow's milk is considered the most sacred food in India, because the cow gives it freely. All other foods, even fruits and vegetables, must be taken at the expense of the plant.

Now we are taking Mother Nature, and splicing up her DNA. Crucifying her on the butcher table of scientific neurosis.

Warm milk with chocolate in it is one of the most universal drinks of comfort. Those days are gone. The sacred place the cow holds and the history of milk in Ayurvedic medicine (including ghee) has been darkened by the shadow of modern scientific tyranny.

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Dr. Helen Thomas, Ayurvedic Practitioner: Since 1987 Dr. Helen Thomas, D.C., has treated thousands of patients, both in America and India, on a daily basis, with the 3,000 year old science of Ayurvedic medicine.

Dr. Helen has pored over the ancient texts and worked side-by-side with Ayurveda practitioners. Over a decade ago, Dr. Helen started paying Ayurvedic doctors from India to come and work with her in her clinic.

Her knowledge comes from hands on experience, not theory given to her in school.

Many of her patients have been moved to tears after receiving an Ayurvedic assessment from Dr. Helen. Ayurveda helped them understand themselves, their needs and their stresses, more profoundly than ever before.

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How Do You Want Your Sirloin - Grain Fed, Organic or Cloned?

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in early 2008 that cloned animals and their offspring were acceptable as consumable food products the resulting firestorm of debate was nothing if not loud.

From a practical standpoint proponents of cloning needed this ruling to add legitimacy to their work. If the cattle and pigs, which have been cloned, can be claimed as safe by the FDA then cloning experimentation can continue with the potential of grant monies from Universities and foundations.

What you may not know is that a fish and a tadpole were reported as clones in the 1950s and 1960s. However, cloning opponents are quick to recall the highly publicized first cloned animal, a sheep named Dolly. This animal was cloned in Scotland. This particular animal only lived to be six years old while the typical age for a Finn Dorset sheep is generally 12-15. The primary argument in this case was whether conditions for Dolly's care contributed to the disease that claimed her life or if because she was a clone from an animal that was roughly six years of age Dolly's body was essentially six years old at birth.

These and similar concerns are part of the complex nature of the cloning argument. In fact, the argument isn't simply with the acceptability of meat and other products from cloned animals, but with human life.

There are some individuals who are apposed to any kind of cloning while others may object to human cloning while finding therapeutic cloning acceptable.

In therapeutic cloning an individual's stem cells are cloned and the additional cells can be used on that same patient for therapies that may provide better health. In this case the cloning is derived from one person for the benefit of the exact same person.

In human cloning there are further divisions. There are those who perceive human cloning as a potential means of having children in the event of infertility while others view a cloned embryo as a potential means of harvesting embryonic stem cells for use in medical experimentation thus eliminating the potential for the embryo to experience life. Those who have cloned embryos for medical research view this process as a means of eradicating a multitude of diseases from the human experience.

Because cloning is still relatively new there are some grave concerns over attempting to clone a human being. The concerns stem from the multiple experiments that went wrong previous to the success of cloned animals.

Is it possible that this type of experimentation could result in even one mutated experiment that develops a life that has some ability to function but is a life form different than what we typically think of as human? What do we do with failed human cloning experiments? Are they taken care of or euthanized?

If this sounds like something out of a science fiction novel I suppose it is. Jurassic Park was developed around the idea of cloning extinct life and other novels have presented dooms day scenarios for cloning.

Religious leaders disagree about the acceptability of cloning and the role of cloning in our culture remains on that will be contested with each new experiment.

Discuss the Human Cloning at ControversialForums. Have Debates in our Discussion Forums.

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Are Meat and Milk From Cloned Animals Really Safe to Eat?

The cloning process for cattle is almost identical to human embryo cloning techniques. The process, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, involves the removal of an egg cell's DNA and replaces it with DNA from a body cell of a donor. The resulting cell can be chemically programmed to divide. If the cell survives, it may become an exact genetic duplicate of the body cell donor animal. In practice, the process produces a high proportion of deformed animals that cannot survive. As cells divide, their chromosomes get shorter. This is because the DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome--called telomeres-shrink each time the DNA is copied. What does this mean? It means problems can develop during later development. Aging is affected. Chromosomes from cloned cattle seem to have a longer lifespan compared with the cells of naturally conceived cattle. However, Dolly, the cloned sheep, had cells aging faster than cells from a normal sheep. Dolly's death at the relatively early age of 6 years old fuels the debate about the long term health of clones.

Problems of development associated with cloning have not been solved. Scientists aren't sure why cloned animals show differences in telomere length. According to the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, "there has not yet been a single cloned mammal that has yet been alive long enough to have lived a natural life span for that animal. We can't underestimate the unanswered questions about cloning." Yet, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for human consumption, clearing the way for cloned products to enter the U.S. food supply. Remember, this is the same FDA that proclaimed DES was safe in our food which was later discovered to cause cancer, and the same FDA that permits synthetic steroid male and female hormones and synthetic growth promoters to be added to our food today. The FDA in its ruling also concluded no labeling is required to inform the consumer that the food is derived from cloned animals or their offspring.

"The FDA has acted recklessly, and I am profoundly disappointed in their rush to approve cloned foods," said Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, co-sponsor of a bill amendment passed by the U.S. Senate which asked the FDA not to rule until further research was available. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said cloned animal products may not be safe and further study was needed. Of course, the biotechnology industry disagrees with the EFSA and Senator Barbara Mikulski. "The biotechnology industry applauds the FDA for its comprehensive scientific review of this new assisted reproductive technology," said Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents companies and institutions in the biotech field.

The FDA asked for a "voluntary moratorium" on keeping cloned products out of the food supply for now. However, a New York Times article reports that Donald Coover of Kansas has sold enough semen from a cloned bull in one year to inseminate 2,000 cows. In 2008, Coover told the Washington Post that it "is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain."

Are meat and milk from cloned animals really safe to eat? The rush to judgment by the FDA prevents a safe and thorough answer to that question. Once again, the American consumer becomes the laboratory test animal as in the case of DES.

Sandy Powers
http://www.organicforhealthsite.com

A breast cancer survivor who also battled liver disease, Sandy Powers turned to organic foods after her mastectomy to heal her liver and fight cancer recurrence. Her research and amazing results she shares in her recently published book "Organic For Health." Visit Sandy at http://www.organicforhealthsite.com

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