Cloned Meat on Aisle 3: Animal Biotechnology and the US Food Supply

According to the U.S. government, your local grocery store may already stock meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals. Siobhan DeLancey, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration, acknowledged that such a scenario is “theoretically possible” because it is theoretically impossible to be assured that farmers have not allowed cloned animals to enter the food supply as no tests exist that can distinguish a cloned animal from one created the old-fashioned way. You may remember that back in January the FDA released a study finding that products from healthy cattle, swine or goats are safe for human consumption, effectively allowing for their introduction into the national food supply. Wary of a consumer back-lash from a generally negative perception of cloned and otherwise genetically modified foods, the USDA requested that those in the cloning industry continue to ban the sale of products from cloned animals. This, however, does not include products from offspring of cloned animals and may help explain the FDA’s announcement on Tuesday.

While much about cloning seems more science fiction than fact, supporters would argue that cloning offers real-life solutions to present and future problems in our ever-expanding world. The Biotechnology Industry Organization, an advocacy group for biotechs, offers these points in support of animal biotechnology:

• Cloning allows farmers to breed the best possible stock, producing the best-quality and safest meat and milk;
• Cloning helps farmers, whose livelihoods depend upon the sale of quality products;
• In an alternative application, animal cloning can be used to protect endangered species. Researchers in China have already started collecting giant panda cells for just this purpose.

Opponents of animal cloning claim that the science is unsound and inhumane. Much of the criticism seems to be guided by an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, where people are suspicious of a new technology that in their opinion will create new problems down the line.

What is perhaps so surprising about the FDA’s announcement is not that second-generation cloned meat and milk is available for human consumption, but that it has become available so quickly. It makes you wonder whether someday (sooner rather than later) that lamb chop on your dinner plate will be descended from Dolly herself…