Reply #5: We're already eating as close to cloned cattle as we can get

[Warpy]

(speaking for the meat eaters) because of the way cattle are bred, using semen from one or two bulls per herd, generation after generation, until the DNA of the whole herd is virtually indistinguishable. Eventually, nature will side with some hidden flaw and such monoculture herds will be wiped out overnight. Until then, they're near clones of each other.

The problem with actual cloning so far is a shortening of lifespan from generation to generation, something that will not affect the creature eating its meat.

My own feeling is that both cloning and monoculture of anything are bad ideas, probably because I'm a Harp and some of us have long memories for history that extend back to the Potato Famine. However, this is how the food supply got cheap enough that even poor folks could afford hamburger every day.

It'll bite us in the butt eventually, but it's not unsafe to eat.