"Genetically engineered meat may be served under FDA plan"
At the end of last year, the FDA proposed regulations that would allow the commercial use of genetically engineered animals. These animals for human consumption, medicine, and companionship. For example, as USA Today noted, they would be regulating:
"• Salmon that grow more quickly and efficiently.
• Goats that produce drugs in their milk or blood.
• Chickens that produce drugs in the whites of eggs.
• Cows that cannot get the brain-wasting mad cow disease.
• Pigs with organs that can be transplanted into humans without rejection.
• Hypoallergenic dogs and cats."
Although the FDA does note that each animal and engineering mechanism must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the conversation behind this news release has opened the doors for scientists, consumers, and advocates to start discussing their general needs and concerns.
One of the biggest concerns from consumers is that these regulations do not require manufacturers to necessarily label the animal products as GE (genetically-engineered). The lines definitely start to blur when questions regarding the different animal products are raised. For example, should milk that comes from cows engineered to produce certain proteins be labelled? Even if the proteins are taken up only by eating the meat?
Another interesting distinction is that these animals effectively become labelled as "drugs". Most of the engineering done on the animals is through rRNA. rRNA is the material that is engineered into animals to make their cells function in a certain way. As a drug is considered "an article (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals", rRNA, and therefore the animals with the rRNA in their bodies, are considered "drugs" in legal literature. Whether people take issue with this is still to be seen, but it definitely creates some new questions as well.
As of yet, FDA-backed research has not shown any dramatic difference between farm-raised meat and lab-engineered meat, but as long as the current developments are fairly preliminary, so is this research. As more regulations are discussed and more products reach the shelves, the public, not just the FDA, will have to decide what belongs in our homes and what should remain in science fiction.
Read the FDA statement mentioned here: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048106.htm
More from the FDA: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2008/ucm116836.htm
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