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If you were served a perfectly grilled burger, and then told that it came from a cloned cow, would you eat it? To most, the answer would be no. According to six of ten Americans, the risks and ethics associated with artificially birthed meat are just too numerous to maintain peace of mind. Therefore, along with the further approval required by government agencies, it is unlikely that cloned meat will be on the dinner table any time soon.

The Rise of Agricultural Manipulation

For thousands of years, humans have manipulated their food sources by means of selective breeding, and more recently, hybridization. The ability to transfer genetic information from one embryonic cell to another, however, is a relatively recent discovery. This was first achieved in 1951, when scientists in Philadelphia successfully cloned the first organism, a tadpole, via nuclear transfer. This accomplishment set the stage for attempts to clone larger and more complex animals. Yet very little advancement occurred for over forty years until 1996, when a lamb named Dolly was birthed from the body cell of an adult sheep. Using Dolly as a template, researchers began cloning other types of livestock such as cows, pigs, and goats. As methods of cloning continued to improve, farmers began to see the potential for cloning their best cattle, and selling its milk and meat to consumers. For many years, there were too many legal loopholes, and the idea of distributing cloned meat remained up in the air. Then, on January 15, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of cloned meat and milk in the United States. However, though this statement from the FDA is a victory for advocates of cloning, there are still many hurdles to go through before cloned livestock can be allowed to be sold as food, including further review from both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. Also, opponents of cloning say that the knowledge involved with the technology is too young to be thrown onto the tables of consumers. So, though cloning has come a long way since 1951, there are still too many bureaucratic obstacles for cloned meat to become mainstream.

Safety Concerns

Questions of safety are also plaguing the cloning industry. This concept is chief among consumer concerns, according to a recent survey by Scientific American, and these concerns are justified. According to the USDA, most cow clones that are birthed by a surrogate mother die within a few days, although this is not the case regarding pigs, sheep, and goats. However, in its January 2008 report, the FDA insisted that “there is no evidence of adverse health affects resulting from eating cloned beef”. Also, cloned beef is reported to show no significant difference, structurally and nutritionally, from conventionally grown cattle. As a result, if cloned meat is to be sold in grocery stores, no labeling will be required to contrast the cloned from the conventionally birthed. The only exception will involve food being labeled as “organic”. In this case, meat bearing this label will not be from, or from the offspring of, cloned animals. Because of concern from the USDA, and intense opposition from anti-cloning organizations, the quick approval of cloned meat and milk by the FDA has not erased consumer fears of whether cloned livestock is safe for consumption.

Financial Obstacles

If cloned meat does go mainstream, its affects on society are not yet certain. For one thing, it currently costs between $13,000 and $17,000 to raise a cloned cow, compared with between $1500 and $3000 to raise a conventional cow, so cloning is not yet affordable to many farmers. Because of this it is likely that only the offspring of cloned animals will be sold as meat, instead of the cloned animals themselves. Another result of cloning would be the loss of genetic variation among livestock. As a result, disease could become devastating. For example, if all the livestock packed into a factory farm share almost identical DNA, a single bug making its way through can actually wipe out the entire population of that farm. Furthermore, many foreign countries ban genetically engineered food and crops. This could then seriously hurt U.S. exports, which would deliver a serious blow to our economy. Therefore, because of the high costs and consequences involved with cloning, it is likely that this technology will have a profound impact on society, although these impacts may not yet be fully known.

Cloning has vastly improved since 1951, and this technology has the potential to greatly alter our way of living. In regards to the consumption of cloned meat, especially beef, the approval of the FDA is just a small step forward on the bureaucratic hierarchy. Also, fears of the safety of eating cloned meat continue to put a damper on the proposed benefits of farmers cloning their best livestock. Because of these hurdles, consumers may not be eating cloned meat for perhaps decades. The world will be keeping a close eye on the cloning industry, and only the future can tell how we will be affected by the onslaught of the cloning industry.
ethic