Are you hungry for a steak? How about a nice BBQ with lots of sausages and hamburgers? Perhaps you've lost your appetite after Tuesday's news?
Image: Cloned dairy cow and pork chop. By Alessandra Petlin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union have declared that cloned meat is safe for eating. Cloning is advantageous for meat producers because they can clone the best animals. However, it is unlikely that we will actually be eating the meat from a cloned animal or drinking cloned milk. Cloning is very expensive and the cloned animal would
most likely be kep
t for breeding.
Nevertheless, many ethical issues have been raised about cloning. Genetic diversity helps maintain natural immunity to disease. It is impossible to tell if the meat is cloned meat without tracking it from birth. This makes it difficult and costly to label cloned meat and clone-free meat in the supermarket. Some consumers have opposed cloned meat for religious reasons.
Check out this New York Times article on cloning for more information:
Would you eat cloned meat? Why or why not?
