The Change Mariner

Animals Cloned for Food No Longer Draw Collective Yawn

New York Times:

... But cloning is back. And this time, the F.D.A. and consumer groups are involved, asking, Is it safe to eat a clone? Can you safely drink a clone's milk? If you breed a clone, can you eat its offspring?

Some consumer groups are wary and some industry groups said they wanted to be sure consumers would accept milk or meat from clones or clone offspring. Public interest groups are weighing in and the F.D.A. will hold a public meeting to air the issue. It expects to decide by next spring whether to regulate food from animal clones.

What changed?

Cloning methods, for one. The clones in 1988 were made from embryos — scientists would breed a prize cow or bull, freeze some of the embryos and let a few go to term. Then they would examine the calves to see if the animals were what they wanted. If so, they would go back to the frozen embryos and clone them, making multiple copies that were clones of the embryo clones, and letting them go to term.

Today, scientists start with adult animals, making clones from adult cells. Like the embryo clones, the clones made from adult cells start out as embryos and are gestated in surrogate mothers. Cloning of adults is less likely to succeed than cloning of embryos, but the methodology is much the same.

Dr. Westhusin says that, as far as food safety is concerned, the question of whether the clone comes from an adult or an embryo "is not a significant issue."

The real change is in the public's perceptions, said Gregory Jaffe, who directs the biotechnology project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group in Washington that describes itself as a nutrition advocacy organization.

"The interest plays off of two things," Mr. Jaffe said. "One is the concern over cloning humans and the other is the attention being given to genetically engineered foods and increased concern about the nature of the food supply. Animal cloning gets thrown in, whether it's the same or not."