Clone on the Range

Cloning promises many benefits, not least through replicating embryonic stem cells, which may be used to repair and replace organs. Though this is a vexed issue politically, a bill currently under debate in the Senate would allow the use of "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (or cloning) in taking genetic information from human embryonic stem cells and implanting it in other cells for therapeutic purposes.

The same process, used for reproductive ends, results in cloned animals. Yet the outcomes aren't always as hoped. Consider Chance, a sweet, Ferdinand-like bull first reported on in This American Life, whose owner, distraught at the bull's death, had the animal cloned only to be gored by Second Chance.

So it's fair to say that the cattle industry is on the horns of a dilemma, facing a reticent public, according to a 2006 poll by the industry-supported International Food Information Council (IFIC), which found that 59 percent of respondents wouldn't buy foods from cloned animals or their offspring even if the FDA said it was safe. Only 16 percent of U.S. adults hold a favorable impression of animal cloning. The industry has been careful to maintain a voluntary ban on selling cloned animal foods, though IFIC's website states that "cloning allows farmers and ranchers to reproduce the most productive, healthiest animals."

The voluntary moratorium on food from cloned animals still stands, but the day of its retirement may be fast approaching. Last December, FDA announced that its peer-reviewed risk assessment on the safety of meat and milk from cloned pigs, cattle and goats had determined that these foods were as safe as those from non-cloned animals and fit for human consumption. Due to lack of information, the FDA recommended against eating food products from sheep clones. Currently, the FDA is accepting public comments on their risk assessment, management plan and draft industry guidance and have extended the comment period by a month. Meanwhile, the European Union, recognizing that member countries may find themselves importing meat from cloned animals (or the descendents of those animals), have assigned the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) the task of determining not only the safety of food from cloned animals but what effect they might have on the environment.