The Washington Post reports that the United States Food and Drug Administration is preparing to move forward on permitting the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals for public consumption. The motion began in October 2003 when the FDA released a preliminary document indicating that cloned meat and milk were safe to eat - but since then, a flood of new research data has come in, bringing the effort back to life.
Stephen Sundolf, chief of veterinary medicine for the FDA overseeing the risk assessment, stated that "... food from cloned animals is as safe as the food we eat every day." Farmers and companies in favor of cloned animals anticipate that not only can cloned products be just as safe as conventional; they can be of a higher quality and provide that quality more consistently. Rather than hunting for the perfect cut of meat, every steak, rack of ribs, and rump roast would be identically delicious.
However, several groups are opposed to the use of cloning technology for food - including the International Dairy Foods Association, who represent Kraft Foods, Dannon, General Mills and Nestle USA, among other companies. Consumer advocacy groups are also worried that the public will reject the food for their own ethical or safety issues.
On Thursday October 12th, the Center for Food Safety -- an organization based in Washington -- filed a petition with the FDA asking them to regulate cloned farm animals one "type" at a time - similar to the fashion in which the FDA regulates new prescription drugs. The FDA has already agreed to regulate transgenic animals (those that have received specific desirable genes) in this manner, but Sundolf agrees that cloned animals do not fall under this definition. Several independently performed and verified tests have shown no biochemical differences in milk or meat, including a comparison of over four hundred animals, of which 242 were cloned.
The issue not so easily averted is that of personal ethics among consumers. The largest reason given to surveyors against animal cloning for food was "religious and ethical" with safety coming in second place. Companies that oppose cloning for food fear that they could suffer financially as a result, as the FDA not only has no inclination to label meat or milk as "cloned" or "not cloned" for ethical reasons, the products are biologically identical, and any claim one way or another could not be easily verified.
As a final note, farmers who own prize-winning cloned animals have been selling semen to farm clubs and others hoping for their moment of agricultural fame; and as is the fate of many a barnyard animal, the offspring end up being slaughtered and sold for consumption.
Techs,techs and techs!
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