The US Food and Drug Administration has declared food from cloned animals fit for human consumption. Think about that, eating the same steer - year after year after year.
The ruling allows meat and dairy products from clones of prize animals to be stocked on supermarket shelves.
“Following extensive review, the risk assessment did not identify any unique risks for human food from cattle, swine or goat clones, and concluded that there is sufficient information to determine that food from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as that from their more conventionally bred counterparts," the agency said in a statement.
The industry's plans are to use clones of prize animals as breeding stock to produce animals for slaughter and human consumption. The idea is meeting considerable consumer and retailer resistance. Some stores have said they'll not stock meat or dairy products that come from cloned stock.
Science races on. Today's decision comes just ten years after Dolly, the first cloned sheep, was created.
The ruling allows meat and dairy products from clones of prize animals to be stocked on supermarket shelves.
“Following extensive review, the risk assessment did not identify any unique risks for human food from cattle, swine or goat clones, and concluded that there is sufficient information to determine that food from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as that from their more conventionally bred counterparts," the agency said in a statement.
The industry's plans are to use clones of prize animals as breeding stock to produce animals for slaughter and human consumption. The idea is meeting considerable consumer and retailer resistance. Some stores have said they'll not stock meat or dairy products that come from cloned stock.
Science races on. Today's decision comes just ten years after Dolly, the first cloned sheep, was created.
Not a good idea. Not because cloned meat may or may not be bad for you but monoculures are always a bad thing when it comes to crops, extending this problem to livestock is a definite no-no.
ReplyDeleteI get your point. Presumably they would only use one clone in any breeding pair to preserve diversity but, who knows? In any case I think they're a long way from overcoming the inevitable consumer resistance.
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