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by In the near future, meat and dairy products in your local grocery store may be the result of clones. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently determined that cloned animals are safe for human consumption. It's more likely that consumers will eat the offspring of clones, however, as the original clone may cost anywhere from $10K to $20K. Furthermore, consumers may not even realize they are eating cloned products as there is no requirement for vendors to use a discerning label. Despite the FDA "go-ahead", consumers and food companies reacted negatively to the idea. "Both the animals and any food produced from those animals is indistinguishable from any other food source," said the FDA's safety chief. "There's no technological way of distinguishing a food that's come from an animal that had a clone in its ancestry. It's not possible." While permission to use clones directly in the market is new, animal cloning is a practice dating back more than a decade.
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Cloning around by NomadSoul :: NR6 :: Show
What I don't understand is why they would to use a cloned animal instead of a natural one. I can only guess that proponents seek to clone the largest or most productive animals to get the highest possible return on their investment. I just can't see how it's cost effective, though. Not to mention the ethical questions (is this an ethical level of domestication or does it go too far?) and the health concerns--just because we can't measure a difference doesn't mean there isn't one. It may turn out that we need genetic diversity in our food as well as in our ecosystem.