I'm not a meat eater but I am still SHOCKED to hear that the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) declared on December 28th, that cloned animals are "virtually identical" to traditionally-bred animals, making the meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and goats safe for consumption.
I don't mean to sound alarmist but this news seems a little Frankensteinian to me. Between you and me, how many people out there are actually waiting anxiously for the opportunity to eat cloned animals?
It seems — thankfully — like not many. A 2002 Gallup Poll found that 66% of Americans feel cloning animals is “morally wrong". Another 2005 poll found that 63 percent of consumers would not buy food from cloned animals, even if the FDA deemed it safe.
Consumer groups, like the Center for Food Safety and the Consumer Federation of America are speaking out against the use of cloning in food production, on the basis that the technology has not been properly tested and may pose risks to public health.
What the @%&*!* is cloning?
Cloning allows the genetic traits of a plant or animal to be copied to create one or more living replicas. Clones are made by removing the nucleus from an egg, and replacing it with the nucleus from a body cell of another animal. This way, the egg develops into an animal that has identical genetic traits as the animal whose cell nucleus it was taken from.
I was surprised to learn, that over the past decade, 15 kinds of mammals have already been successfully cloned, including mules, horses, deer, oxen, dogs, cats, and cows. These advances have opened up potential uses of cloning by the beef and dairy industry. With hardly any regulations in place to protect consumers from the potential risks of cloned food, we seem headed for a truly Frankensteinian future.
The high cost of cloning ($20,000 for just one cow) prevents the beef and dairy industries from using the technology to mass produce meat and or dairy cows. Instead, industries plan to replicate breeding animals (which can produce offspring to be used as food), taking advantage of the genetic traits of prized cows and bulls without being limited by the animals’ natural lifespan.
What happened to Dolly, anyway?
Dolly, the first mammal (a sheep) to ever be cloned, in 1996, developed premature arthritis and lung disease leading her creators to euthanize her after just six years—roughly half the lifespan of a normal sheep. Research shows this isn't a unique incident -- developmental and genetic abnormalities characterize most cloned animals, giving rise to more problems during childbirth, higher rates of death among mothers and children during birthing, and to disorders such as blocked intestines, immune deficiencies and diabetes. Dolly’s creator, Ian Wilmut, stated that small imbalances in a clone’s protein, hormone, or fat levels may affect the safety and quality of its milk or meat....this has raised the concern of some scientists' in the use of this technology in food production.
RAISED CONCERNS?! I'd say, I find the whole concept mortifying!!
Especially given that most assertions that consuming foods from cloned animals is safe were actually from a 2005 study on milk taken from four cows and beef from only two cattle. Mmm...I wonder who paid for that study?
Bringing cloned food to the marketplace springs after all, from commercial interests from the beef and dairy industries, who wish to take advantage of the technology to profit. But morality aside, where does this leave consumers’ health -- not to mention arguments for conserving species diversity?
So for now, if you want to be absolutely sure that you and your family are not eating Frankenstein meat and/or dairy from cloned animals, purchase your food from small, local farms run by farmers you trust.
as for me, I’m leaving on a jet plane...to Rio.
