Is Dolly coming to dinner?
The FDA has spent the last six years tracking the safety of cloning and last week concluded that meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of all clones, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. But will people buy it? While many Americans eat genetically modified (GM) food everyday (a vast number of products containing corn and soy contain GM products), they eat it unknowingly, as the FDA does not require GM products to be labeled as such. However, consumers feel more strongly about cloned animal products.
The FDA’s focus groups show that about one third of consumers would never eat cloned animal products under any circumstances, one third have no objection, and the remaining third falls somewhere in between. However, even with two thirds of consumers against or unsure about eating cloned food, the FDA is not requiring the labeling of cloned animal products. Until this is required, we won’t be seeing Dolly at the dinner table anytime soon.
The FDA is, however, considering letting producers of conventionally bred animal products voluntarily label their products clone-free, but these will be considered on a case-to-case basis to ensure that this labeling is truthful and not misleading.
martha.walz@advantagemedia.com
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