This afternoon the Food and Drug Administration gave its official approval of food coming from cloned animals and their offspring. In its final report, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, the agency stated that it had taken all moral, religious and scientific factors into account, and concluded that food from cloned animals is just as safe as food coming from ordinary animals.
There are currently 600 or so cloned animals in the United States, and officials note it may be several years before milk or meat from cloned animals even is ready for the consumer market. Because they’re so expensive to produce, most of them right now are only used for breeding purposes.
“Many farmers and ranchers are already using other assisted reproductive technologies, such as artificial insemination, embryo transplant, and in-vitro fertilization to produce superior animals,” said Bruce Knight, under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs with the USDA, which supported the FDA in its announcement. “Cloning is another breeding technology that has evolved and has now been demonstrated to be safe.”
Let's see how consumers demonstrate their support.
