Beef: the other cloned meat
US - Though you won't be eating cloned beef on your Big Mac anytime soon, the Food and Drug Administration says that it is completely safe to do so.
24 January 2007
2 minute read
Ten years after the world was introduced to Dolly, a genetic duplicate of a sheep cloned by Scottish scientists in 1996, the FDA released a nearly 700 page document, stating simply that meat and milk from cloned adult animals and their offspring is safe for human consumption and virtually indistinguishable from traditionally reproduced animals.
What does this mean for consumers now? Will we begin to see certified "cloned" sirloin next to certified "free range organic" sirloin on our super market shelves? The answer is no, at least for now. A practical use for cloning animals will only be available years in the future as the price to produce one clone is a costly $15,000 to $20,000.
"There is no particular advantage or disadvantage to consuming meat, milk or any other animal product that comes from a cloned animal," said Dr. David Buchanan, professor of animal science at Oklahoma State University and former president of the American Society of Animal Science. "I see very little need for the animals directly used for food production to be cloned."
According to Dr. Buchanan, the cloning of beef or dairy cattle might only be needed to produce parents and grandparents whose offspring would then reproduce sexually and be raised naturally as they are today. The actual genetic clones would most likely never be introduced into the consumer's food chain.
What is the point of cloning animals if those animals cloned were never actually eaten?
Source: TheVistaonline
