Hot off the Weird Story press: Scientists from the Food and Drug Administration have determined that milk and meat that comes from cloned animals is virtually indistinguishable from food that comes from animals reproduced through other technologies.  (Other technologies?  Does that mean “animal humping”?)  From an Associated Press article in the online edition of the Houston Chronicle:

The agency “concludes that meat and milk from clones and their progeny is as safe to eat as corresponding products derived from animals produced using contemporary agricultural practices,” FDA scientists Larisa Rudenko and John Matheson wrote in the Jan. 1 issue of Theriogenology.  […]  Also, FDA believes that no special labels are needed for food from clones or their offspring, the scientists wrote. Consumer groups say labels are a must, because surveys have shown people to be uncomfortable with the idea of cloned livestock.  (You can find the Web site for the journal Theriogenology here.)

But that’s not all the consumer groups have to say on the issue:

‘Consumers are going to be having a product that has potential safety issues and has a whole load of ethical issues tied to it, without any labeling,’ said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety.  […]  Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, said the FDA is ignoring research that shows cloning results in more deaths and deformed animals than other reproductive technologies.  […]  The consumer federation will ask food companies and supermarkets to refuse to sell food from clones, she said.

The article goes on to explain that cloning technology would be used primarily for breeding purposes, not to produce animals to be butchered for your local supermarket meat bins.  Cloning would allow ranchers and farmers to produce identical copies of animals with exceptional attributes such as the ability to produce more milk (in the case of cows) or the ability to fatten quicker (in the case of pigs).

‘We clone an animal because we want a genetic twin of that animal,’ said Barb Glenn of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.  […]  ‘It’s not a genetically engineered animal; no genes have been changed or moved or deleted,’ she said.  […]  Thus, consumers would mostly get food from their offspring and not the clones themselves, Glenn said.  (Associated Press.)

The article goes on to explain that final approval of the cloning of animals for food production is still months away and that “the FDA will accept comments from the public after issuing a risk assessment”.

The photo above, in my humble opinion, is exactly what these two scientists are hinting at when they refer to “other reproductive technologies”.  A euphemism!

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