Cloned food. Coming to a store near you?

The FDA is apparently getting ready to release a report on the safety and labeling decisions on cloned food. While I haven't found any evidence that the report has actually been released, recent news says it should be any day. [US report due soon on milk, meat from cloned livestock 10/24/03; FDA report on meat from cloned livestock is due soon, ENN, 10/24/03]. In a timely piece, Charles Choi at The Scientist has an article Americans unsure about GM foods from a survey released by the Food Policy Institute of Rutgers University.

When people thing of GM foods, they generally think of plant crops and the inclusion of extra-species genetic material incorporated in those plants. What few realize is that the altered crops are then cloned - billions of copies of genetically altered corn, soy beans, etc. I think it is no accident that that the "cloning" piece is left out. My guess is that if folks are nervous about GM, then they are even more nervous about the "C" word. However, the current issue is not about GM (and cloned) plant crops, it is about the cloning of cows, pigs, and chickens (primarily).

People get even a bit more nervous when we move from plants (which many see as being highly dissimilar from humans) and into animals (who on a good day are seen as being biologically and emotionally much closer to human). The FDA has already ruled GM crops as "genetically equivalent" of non-GM crops. I know, how can a billion identical copies of anything be "genetically equivalent" of natural diversity? I think the answer to the FDA's choice in that matter needs little discussion. We know what the inducements are already.

But hey, how about those cloned cows and chickens? And how about that cloned milk, cheese, butter, and eggs? Apparently "farmers" are chomping at the bit to get this approved. "Farmers" is in quotes because my best guess is that it isn't your sterotypical farmer who can hardly wait for cloning to be approved, but your agri-business dependent farmer, and your corporate farmer who are, but I digress.

It is hard to imagine any independent farmer being supportive of this. For all the hype, cloning is not a perfected technology - not even for plants. The failure rate in more complex species ("animals" for example) fails many more times than it succeeds, and there are some nagging problems. Problems such as:
- Why do they have so many defects and anomalies (serious, deadly ones)?
- Why are they born old and die young?
- Why does cloning just "fail to take" so frequently?

Then there are those other nagging questions such as:
- What are the effects of consuming cloned products?
- If in addition to being cloned, there are genetic modifications, what are the long term health effects of those?
- What happens if a disease sweeps through that "strain"? And related,
- what happens to those who have regularly consumed that genetically modified cloned strain?

Just little nagging questions which I am sure that the Food Safety Board of the FDA will not have too many problems addressing. Namely by responding that "There is no scientific proof that there are negative health consequences." Therefore cloned food animals and food products are "safe" and because they are likely to be deemed "genetically equivalent" then no special labeling will likely be required either.

Just guesses on my part - hopefully inaccurate guesses. But my suspicion is that when the report is released it is not going to make the evening news. It is likely that the FDA has learned from the FCC debacle about going directly contrary to the public's feelings on policy. Wouldn't want those "loony" animal rights folks to get hung up on this one. No sirree! Wouldn't want millions of irate citizens burying the FDA in emails, letters, and phone messages the way they did the FCC. (HINT) Wouldn't want the Congress to get bombarded either because then they might need to step up to the plate (HINT). Nope, better to keep it quiet don't you think? After all, who is it going to harm?