Gary and Lauren Nitschke’s Circle N Ranch is 3,100 acres of gently rolling hills and forest. A creek wanders through it from north to south and wildlife abounds. The core of Circle N Ranch has been in Gary Nitschke’s family for more than 50 years, and the family has added to it as land became available.

As of January 2009, you will now be able to purchase and consume products from genetically engineered animals – without one mention of that fact on the label.

Whether you welcome or dread your first GE dish, we all have one thing in common–we won’t know when we eat it. Our friends at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have decided that products from genetically engineered animals will not be labeled as such.

The FDA says that it will not require labeling of products from genetically engineered animals because those products are not “materially different” from conventional ones. Ironically this ruling follows a recent Consumers Union poll which found that 95% of respondents favored labeling of milk and meat from genetically engineered animals. A spokeswoman for the FDA defended its decision, stating, “…the FDA doesn’t require that a pork chop label specify [the breeding method of the pig].”

Translation: the FDA has decided genetic engineering is just another way to breed animals and therefore, it doesn’t make the meat, eggs or dairy from those animals any different from the meat, eggs or dairy out of grandma’s barnyard.