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USA – CLONES AND THE FOOD SUPPLY
Our view on clones and the food supply: Cloning of livestock nears
23 October 2006. Source: USA Today
In 1996, when Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, scientists were excited that the technique could lead to cures for disease. A decade later, as cloning technology has progressed, livestock producers are excited for a different reason: They believe it could bring better steaks and lamb chops to supermarket meat counters.
The editorial says that so far, the FDA appears do be doing what it's supposed to do, which is review the issue carefully and base its decision on science. More than 100 studies have shown that food products from animal clones and their offspring are as safe as those from conventionally bred animals.
For all the controversy, cloning isn't a radical departure from assisted breeding techniques common in the livestock industry, such as in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. It allows breeders to create an exact genetic copy, essentially an identical twin, by transferring cells from an animal into an egg, which is then implanted into a surrogate mother.
The process can be used to produce superior traits in an animal herd — for instance cattle that have lean but tender meat or dairy cows that are proven milk producers.
By reproducing the healthiest, most disease-resistant animals, cloning can minimize the need for antibiotics, growth hormones and other chemicals that can enter the food supply. Conventional breeding strives for the same goals less effectively.
Despite concerns that Dolly aged prematurely, cloned animals are at least as healthy as their conventional counterparts, a 2004 National Academies of Science study shows. Beyond the FDA, though, breeders could find a more formidable hurdle. The public's fear of the new and unknown had slowed irradiation of food to destroy deadly bacteria and genetically modified crops that can resist disease, pests and drought. Two-thirds of Americans are uncomfortable with animal cloning for religious or ethical reasons, a 2005 poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found.
Overcoming that fear will take time and persuasion, which is as it should be. For the FDA, though, the question is just whether animal cloning is safe. On that point, the evidence appears overwhelming.
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