Healthier meat & dairy
Current controversies
In January 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that meat and milk from cloned livestock and their offspring are safe for human consumption. Cloning raises questions about food safety risks, animal cruelty and other ethical concerns.
The USDA has proposed a National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a currently voluntary program that critics fear may become mandatory. It involves registering premises where livestock are kept and tagging animals with microchips. The USDA says the program will provide traceability for animal diseases, but opponents say traceability already exists through current branding and vaccination programs.
The Rodale Insitute and Liberty Ark Coalition say NAIS would further squeeze family ranchers to the benefit of industrial operations. CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) released a report indicating that microchips used for tracking cause cancer in animals.