Go Forth and Multiply

A recent article on farm animal cloning appeared in the British Daily Mail. Following the births of eight offspring from a cloned U.S. milking cow, shoppers in the UK are outraged at the lack of information available and the absence of any labeling requirements. A recent survey of 25,000 European consumers found that 84 per cent believe we don’t know enough about the long-term health and safety effects of eating food from cloned animals.

Though the US Food and Drug Administration has ruled food from cloned animals to be safe, there are similar (though not as overwhelming) reservations among American consumers. Concerns about animal welfare and the success rate of current cloning methods have been cited by the Union of Concerned Scientists and others. Consumer advocates argue that there are concerns which have not yet been addressed.