Goodbye, Dolly: Rejecting Cloned Food

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2007/tc20070215_290758.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

The executive director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals on why Americans should say no to food from animal clones

by Dr. Allan Kornberg

Over the past decade, news of Dolly's birth and subsequent announcements that scientists succeeded in producing clones of cows, pigs, goats, and other animals—even cats and dogs—have been hailed as amazing advances in biotechnology. The fact that Dolly died prematurely of a lung disease that typically afflicts much older sheep, and more importantly, the severity of animal suffering and the welfare issues associated with cloning, have not been as widely reported.

In a country where current farming practices already produce more meat than we can consume, we must ask ourselves the question, "Just because we can produce food from cloned animals, should we?" To those of us who care about animal welfare and the suffering that cloning animals for food will cause, the answer is a resounding, "No."

The FDA has said that it "does not have authority to address the ethics of animal cloning," but the evidence for welfare problems in animal clones is scientifically verified and huge in its scale and depth. The FDA's December, 2006 statement that "Cloning poses no unique risks to animal health," is misleading. Most clone embryos die before birth, and many of the few clones that are born alive suffer from serious abnormalities and premature death. In addition, many of the animals being cloned are those with particularly high productivity, such as cows with excessively large udders that produce more milk but also suffer from major leg problems and painful diseases. It is unconscionable to use biotechnology to knowingly create animals that will suffer in order to produce milk and meat that most Americans would prefer not to consume. If the FDA refuses to listen to reason and allows these products to be brought to market, they must be labeled so that consumers can make informed choices.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. More like warning labels for informed choice, like cigarettes. n/t