Your Green Life

The FDA has declared it safe for people to eat food that comes from cloned animals, echoing a similar endorsement of safety from European regulators from last week. The FDA further ruled that there will not be any labeling required to identify food as coming from cloned animals or not. Interestingly, it is unlikely that we will ever see any food from cloned animals, but instead from their offspring. Cloned cows, for example, are 15-20x more valuable than a regular cow, so the economics just don't add up.

I think this is a great development. Overall, allowing cloned animals to become part of the food chain will allow our food producers to copy the best of the best livestock which will result in better quality food.. As a clone is simply a genetic copy of the original, there is simply no risk and no difference between traditional animals and cloned animals; it is just a more efficient breeding method.

There will certainly be some backlash against this ruling as people are naturally squeemish about the idea of eating something that perhaps seems unnatural. This is a bad, albeit understandable, instinct. Cloning methods will continue to improve and we can begin to enjoy a consistent supply of livestock that are healthier and more productive.