The FDA has allowed cloned animal products into American food supplies, causing concern among consumers about safety, genetic modification, and animal welfare. Cloning is expensive and reduces species diversity, while genetically modified clones pose a risk to healthy animals. Consumers want the choice to avoid cloned animal products, but tracing them can be difficult and labeling laws are not yet established.
In 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released documents suggesting that cloned animals and cloned animal products would be allowed into American food supplies. The result was a mass outcry from citizens around the world, who raised serious concerns about the idea of cloned animals in their food. This public comment mirrored the response to genetically modified organisms and other revelations about American agriculture such as displays of concentrated animal feeding operations and the routine practice of feeding animals rendered parts of other animals, a situation that could potentially cause encephalitis bovine spongiform or mad cow disease.
The FDA has argued that cloned animal products are safe for consumption and has conducted numerous studies on clones and their products to support this claim. In fact, some American produce has already been eaten by cloned animals, seemingly without any ill effects. The FDA analyzed the structure and content of cloned animal products, compared it with traditionally reproduced animals, and found no statistical difference between the two.
For consumers, several issues have arisen in the discussion of cloned animals. The first is the question of whether cloned tissue and animal products are truly safe. The second is that many clones are also genetically modified and the FDA has stated that the genetically modified animal material is not safe for human consumption. The third is a matter of choice: if cloned meat and animal products are safe, consumers want to be able to choose what they put into their bodies.
The first concern for cloned animals is largely negated by the expense of producing a clone. What technologies can become cheaper, making a clone is laborious and very expensive – allowing cows to reproduce normally is even cheaper. Clones are used to improve livestock: by cloning, for example, a particularly perfect bull, a farmer can increase the yield of the semen to produce calves or sell it to other cow farmers. These clones live pampered lives because they’re extremely valuable animals, even though biologists have raised concerns about species diversity: Cloned animals decrease diversity, especially if one clone is used to potentially produce hundreds of offspring.
The second concern, about the genetic modification of cloned animals, is more problematic. It can be very difficult to isolate genetically modified animals from normal animals or their cloned relatives, although because animal reproduction is more obvious than plant reproduction, “cross-pollination” may be easier to avoid. However, GM salmon that has escaped into the wild has caused serious problems for wild salmon, as GM fish can still breed and dilute the wild gene pool. The purpose of the GM cloned animals is unclear, because the FDA has not declared their intention to allow their products to be placed on the market, for health reasons, but the risk of genetic corruption of healthy animals is still present.
Finally, the problem of choice is great. Many animal rights activists have raised concerns about how humanely cloned animals will be treated, since they appear to be a step removed from conventionally produced animals. Individuals who are concerned about animal rights are also concerned about clone rights, because cloned or not, animals still have thoughts, feelings, and desires. Other consumers are simply trying to eat more natural or healthy foods and have concerns about consuming cloned animals. If the FDA doesn’t establish and enforce labeling laws, people may not be able to make informed choices about their food. Food campaigners have warned that tracing clones can be very difficult and it may not even be possible to accurately label meat once cloned animals enter the food supply. Organic farmers are already taking steps to protect their stocks, but this can become difficult when multiple generations of cloned animal descendants are available on the open market.
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