The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may be looking to use
emerging technology in products for livestock that could make animals on
factory farms gain weight and absorb medications faster.
The
technology in question is nanotechnology, the process of manipulating or
creating matter at the molecular level. While there are a range of uses
for nanotechnology, including the development of clothing and
cosmetics, it has become particularly prevalent in the commercial food
sector. Nestle, Heinz, Kraft, and other companies have cumulatively
invested billions of dollars into the industry.
FDA told Reuters
last week that it is "particularly interested" in using nanotechnology
to change the chemical, physical, or biological makeup of livestock feed
and drugs. The agency has a history of using dangerous or untested
technology and additives, often keeping products on the market even
after they have been proven as unsafe for human and animal consumption.
"We know far too little about the human health and environmental
effects of this technology to allow it to slip into our food without
rigorous assessment," said Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst for Center for Food Safety.
FDA released a series of guidances
last week on the use of nanotechnology in food products, stating that
the agency is not making "broad, general assumptions" about its safety.
The documents "encourage" manufacturers to consult with the FDA on the
safety of their products before rolling them out to the public, as the
agency does not have enough data about potential safety issues of
nanotechnology in food products for humans or animals.
The agency has come under fire several times in recent years from
public health and consumer watchdog groups such as the Center for Food
Safety and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for its
irresponsible oversight of additives in food and medicine, particularly
on factory farms. In addition to loosely regulated experimentation with
nanotechnology, FDA was also found to use harmful additives like arsenic
in order to make animals gain weight faster.
Last year, the Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit
against FDA to respond to a petition, filed by public health and
environmental groups, asking the agency to withdraw additives containing
arsenic from approved livestock feed.
Arsenic is often used in poultry feed to induce faster weight gain.
The petition, filed in 2009, showed the harmful effects that organic
arsenic compounds can have on animals and humans alike, as well as its
tendency to convert into inorganic, cancer-causing toxins. The Institute
for Agriculture and Trade Policy in 2006 called public attention to FDA's use of arsenic in livestock feed, but the agency made no significant changes to its policy since then.
FDA also knowingly allowed the widespread use of "high-risk" additives that didn't meet the agency's own safety standards, a report
by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently showed. FDA
reviewed 30 different antibiotic feeds used to promote growth and
prevent disease in animals and poultry on factory farms, where
conditions are often unsanitary, and concluded that the products exposed
humans and animals to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Almost all of
these additives are approved for use today and at least nine continue to
be marketed.
Further complicating matters is the issue of transparency in food and drug approval regulations; a report
published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted a
range of concerns regarding nanotechnology that are shared by NGOs and
consumers alike, including sufficient safety testing; public awareness
of the presence of nanomaterials in food and products; and consideration
of the ethics of nanotechnology. According to the report, "nearly all
advocacy NGOs... expressed a desire for industry and governments to
implement measures of some kind to protect the health and safety of
workers and the public from the consequences of unregulated release of
commercial nanoproducts into the environment."
FDA did not respond to request for comment.
from here
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