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Cloned Food

This is somewhat of a mirror from my blog, but I think it's an interesting subject that could provoke a good discussion.

I read an article today by Michael Y. Park of the epi-log on epicurious.com that the FDA has recently concluded a study of milk and meat from cloned animals and the offspring from cloned animals. The verdict? Cloned food is safe to eat.

The article postulates that soon we might be seeing labels such as "clone-free" appearing on food. As silly as that might initially sound, it's not unrealistic, considering all the other labels our government provides us.

What do you think? Would you be willing to buy cloned meat? Would you demand a "clone-free" type label? Or do you think meat is meat is meat and it's not that big of a deal?

Comments

Quality of the meat seems to me to be a small concern compared to ethical issues behind cloned foods. Groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Humane Society of the United States have commented on the decreased quality of animal welfare due to cloning (i.e. survival rates into adulthood, increased drug treatments, etc.).

It's interesting that most Americans have an aversion to buying food labeled as coming from cloned animals, as though the mass production of meat isn't already nasty enough (and I am a meat eater). If one has reconciled one's mind past animal treatment concerns, then why would cloned meat be any worse than the growth-hormone-injected meat already available?

Glad to see questions of this type being posted!

I'm more worried about the factory-farmed food and adulteration of processed foods than I am about cloned food. The pet food scare was just the tip of the iceberg.

Plus, creating clones is expensive, and they'd be used to produce superior food animals, not become food themselves. That's something people don't think about. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to breed animals the conventional way.

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