Cloned Food

I’m cynical enough to see the recent announcement by the FDA that food from cloned animals is safe to eat as a prime example of a “dog bites man” story. It’s no surprise to me that the feds would side with multinational agribusiness cartels in declaring biotechnologically engineered meat and milk to be a-okay for human consumption. The real news would have been if they’d rejected further encroachments by technology into our food production pipeline.

It’s not that I think the FDA’s ruling is mistaken; they’re probably right: a cloned animal is no different genetically than an identical twin, the cloned animals themselves wouldn’t be eaten, just their sexually-reproduced offspring, and as cloning advocates point out, we (well, not me, but non-vegetarians) already eat plenty of meat that comes from the offspring of identical twin animals.

Still, there’s something disturbing about the idea of putting something into one’s own body that has been created—even indirectly—by a laboratory process.

Of course, one could respond that we already do this all the time: prescription drugs and soda pop, for instance, along with myriad other substances we ingest are all created in labs. We’re just being superstitious to reject food that is produced by scientists in white coats rather than farmers in overalls.

I realize I’m being a luddite here, but simply as a matter of taste—aesthetic, not gustatory—I simply prefer to eat things that have been produced essentially the way they’ve been produced since time immemorial; even if meat and milk from clones is safe, I would eschew it—just as I avoid eating Wonder Bread, too.

The promise of cloning, for a non meat-eater, is that one day, scientists might be able to genetically engineer say, a side of veal, without it having to come from a calve that suffers in producing it.

I dunno, though; even if veal could be grown like carrots, I still think I’d opt for the Eggplant Parmesan instead.