Cloned Food Products Near Reality
Items Could Reach Shelves by 2003
 

 
Monday, September 16, 2002 - Courtesy Washington Post

Milk from cloned cows and meat from the offspring of cloned cows and pigs could show up on grocery shelves as early as next year under the plans of livestock breeders who are already raising scores of clones on American farmsteads.

A special NAS panel that reviewed developments in animal biotechnology was alarmed by genetic manipulation of fish and insects that might escape and harm wild species, but it found cloning of farm animals less troublesome, since the technique involves copying adult animals without altering their genes. The committee called for a few additional studies but said the technique was unlikely to affect the safety of the food supply.

"I think our message was fairly loud and clear," said panel member Eric Hallerman, a biologist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. "The concern about food safety, we thought, was just way overblown."

A few cloned cows scattered around the country are already producing milk. Farmers and companies have held off selling it only because of informal requests from the Food and Drug Administration, which is reviewing whether clones, their byproducts or their offspring should be allowed into the food supply.

The agency hopes for a decision by late this year. Absent compelling evidence of a problem, it's not clear the FDA or any other government agency would have the legal power to keep cloned animals out of the food supply.

For that reason, products made from clones are likely to be a mere trickle in the marketplace, at least at first, farmers said. But if the technique becomes established and the price of cloning falls, farmers envision a day when entire dairy herds may be stocked with nothing but clones of the most prolific cows.