WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may have entered the U.S. food supply, the U.S. government said on Tuesday, but it would be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and conventional products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as products from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones and their offspring.

While the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was in charge of managing the transition of these animals into the food supply. Cloning animals involves taking the nuclei of cells from adults and fusing them into egg cells that are implanted into a surrogate mother. There are an estimated 600 cloned animals in the United States.

Proponents, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization, say cloning is a way to create more disease-resistant animals that produce more milk and better meat. The cloning industry and the FDA say cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as their traditional counterparts.

Critics contend not enough is known about the technology to ensure it is safe, and they also say the FDA needs to address concerns over animal cruelty and ethical issues. “It worries me that this technology is out of control in so many ways,” said Charles Margulis, a spokesman with the Center for Environmental Health. The possibility of offspring being in the food supply “is just another element of that,” he said.

Phew! As long as the FDA says it’s safe, we can all rest easy.




  1. Non-Luddite says:

    Critics may contend all they like, but you’ve already drank cloned milk and eaten cloned beef. (But how could that be worse than what passes for a Whopper???)

    Guess you’ll just have to go back to huntin and trapping…and road kill.

  2. moss says:

    When all the science you can bring to bear on a question finds no measurable difference, you can always fall back on myth, gossip and superstition.

  3. Fair Trade says:

    Has the FDA ever done the job they’re supposed to do or has it always been owned by the companies it’s supposed to regulate?

  4. smartalix says:

    The issue here is very clouded because all clones are being lumped into the same category. There are two categories of clone: one that has been cloned to replicate a living creature with desirable qualities, and one that has been cloned in a process where the genome was manipulated to produce a desirable quality. The former is completely safe, the latter may not be.

  5. McCullough says:

    #4. smartalix- As to your first point, I am more concerned about the implications of making a perfected human. Think of the military applications alone. I can’t agree that it is perfectly safe, not for us or them.

  6. Angel H. Wong says:

    Now you guys can complain to your wives that she’s been serving the same meat all the time.

  7. MikeN says:

    Why do you guys hate technology so much?

  8. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    #5, but how do they taste?

  9. @#2: It is scientifically proven that cloned animals suffer from a variety of problems we do not have clear explanation of. Most notable are metabolic issues from which many of the clones die early on. Just from that point cloned animals and their products should be treated as diseased. Even more, diseased with the type of illness we do not understand. Would you accept FDA claims that food is safe if it was not cloning related but the actual unknown disease? I don’t think so.

  10. smartalix says:

    5,

    there again, isthe clone an engineered human or just a copy of one that was created the old-fashioned way?

  11. Pmitchell says:

    #10 show me facts not just your word that it is a proven fact

    evidence or its a lie

  12. McCullough says:

    #11. Alix- Doesn’t matter, the danger is in choosing only the most intelligent, physically fit specimens to clone, weeding out the undesirable traits over generations, you must see where I am going with this.

    M’kay, I’ll say it, Hitler!

  13. Non-Ludite says:

    #2 Aptly said 🙂 Consider that quote stolen.

  14. Enuf_Is_Enuf says:

    #10 raises the most important point – the clones are defective.

    Looking at our government’s role – notice that at the same time “the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was” – already – “managing the transition of these animals into the food supply”.

    In other words, approval was a foregone conclusion. Everything else was a sideshow designed to make us believe that
    (1) the government is protecting us from bad products
    (2)goernment is not bought and paid for by industry.
    (3) the cloned products are safe

  15. MikeN says:

    #13, what does that have to do with Hitler? That is more like the progressives from earlier in the 20th century. Eugenics was quite popular.

  16. amodedoma says:

    How is cloned and genetically modified foods any scarier than chemical conservatives and tints in other foods? If you’re afraid spend a little more buy the good stuff and cook it yourself. Oh and if you’re smart you’ll stay away from soft drinks altogether – you wouldn’t believe the crap they put in those.

  17. McCullough says:

    Margaret Sanger was a great admirer of Hitler and his Eugenics ideals.

  18. Poster who is amazed at the stupidity of these comments says:

    Wow! looks like most of you need to retake Bio101 (the High School Version).

  19. Shubee says:

    The threat is far greater than just the danger of cloned animals:

    http://www.everythingimportant.org/Monsanto

  20. deowll says:

    I could care less about eating cloned animals. It isn’t a health issue at least for the eater.

  21. FRAGaLOT says:

    If it eventually leads to help feed the starving, by making food products cheaper, and more plentiful, what’s wrong with this?

    Every time something new comes out that might possibly be hazardousness will get worked out over time. There will be some blood spilled in the processes, it’s not avoidable. You can’t expect a new product to be perfect and not cause side effects to people who eat it.

    Remember artificial sweeteners? They used to be bad and cancer causing; fast forward 50 years later, after all the people who consumed those old sweeteners are now dead. Today everyone is eating that shit up like it’s actually healthy for you.

  22. Smartalix says:

    13,

    Eugenics is a different issue from food safety. Copy-clones are different than engineered clones, and if the host animal is OK, the clone will be, too.

  23. Uncle Patso says:

    The study of epigenetics is in its infancy. We know very little about the factors controlling gene expression. Until we get a better understanding of these processes, cloning will remain difficult, with a low yield. As it becomes better understood, cloned animals (and any possible safety issues) will improve.


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