“Clone: It’s What’s For Dinner!”

With a nod to the popular National ad campaign to encourage Americans to eat more beef, we must consider the possibility that the next iteration of the ads may promote cloned beef…or pork, or goat for your next evening meal. Won't that be special?

In a recent development, a Rick Weiss story in Tuesday’s Washington Post indicates a long, and long-awaited final report from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concludes that foods from healthy cloned animals and their offspring are as safe to eat as those from ordinary animals. This news effectively removes the final U.S. regulatory barrier to marketing meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs, and goats. Bon appetit mon amis!

The FDA recognizes that a majority of American consumers are wary of food from clones, and further that cloning could undermine the wholesome image of American meat and milk. To counter these concerns, the still unreleased 968-page report devotes hundreds of pages of raw data to showing how its conclusions were reached. The report, the FDA’s risk assessment on cloned animals, termed a “final risk assessment,” finds no evidence to support opponents’ concerns that food from clones may harbor hidden risks.

It is not surprising that while human health risks or the lack thereof pose major concerns, they are not the only issues related to the discussion. As with the broader topic of cloning in general, there are moral, religious, and ethical concerns. The FDA’s response to these collateral concerns is the risk assessment is “strictly a science-based evaluation,” and the Agency is not authorized to consider these matters.

The decision to determine clones safe to eat will not result in them appearing in local grocers immediately. At this point, the number of clones is few, and their value high, too high to slaughter and sell for food. The FDA also want to enlist public reaction as a component to determine how quickly cloned food is available in the market place.

Due to all these reasons and more, it could still take years to see cloned goods as a staple at the corner store. Imperfections in the technology still exist. This means many attempts end in birth defects. The current frequency of live normal births appears to be low. Obviously this will affect availability as well as marketability.

In summary, the siren has sounded. Cloned food will become a part of a not too distant future reality. For many, vegans, and those who have adopted organic food diets, for example, the cloned food discussion will amount to mere background noise. Others who harbor those aforementioned moral, religious, and ethical concerns may also eschew the food, if not the debate. But there will be a segment of the population for whom cloned food will represent a viable dietary option. Are you among them?

The research indicates when all goes well; a healthy clone is merely a genetic twin to its non-clone counterpart. However, at this time in the evolution of cloning, the science is simply not reliable enough to consistently provide viable options for eating. But get ready; that time is coming.

That’s it; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/, or by Googling thesphinxofcharlotte. A new post is published each Wednesday.


http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/64b99082cc73d010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402941.html?wpisrc=newsletter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011100849.html?hpid=news-col-blog

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/31/clone.food.ap/index.html

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=active&q=clones+safe+to+eat&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=4&ct=title

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321446,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16372490/

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/healthmedical/a/safeclone.htm

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/cloned-animals-safe-to-eat-fda-concludes/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6692091

http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-3164.html

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Documents/CLRAES.pdf