Food Sleuth: I Prefer Natural Selection to Cloned Perfection

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

January 23, 2008

Available online at: http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/jan/20080123food002.asp

Call me old-fashioned, but the thought of eating any part of a cloned animal leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

I’m not alone. Recent polls and national surveys from Gallup, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, and Consumers Union report nearly two-thirds of American consumers express discomfort and concern about animal cloning; 89 percent want identifying labels.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made history last week by concluding the "meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine and goats, and the offspring of all clones, are as safe to eat as the food from conventionally bred animals."

The FDA reports that unlike genetic engineering, cloning does not change the gene sequence. The agency defines an animal clone as "a genetic copy of a donor animal, similar to an identical twin but born at a different time." However, the Center for Food Safety, a not-for-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., discloses potential health defects, deformities and difficult births.

Animal welfare and ethical issues aside, the cloning industry promises livestock producers a more efficient breeding method for consistently producing the best traits in meat: lean, juicy, tender and flavorful every time.

I’m not buying if I can help it. Unfortunately, the FDA will not require identifying labels on meat or milk from cloned animals, nor will they track those products in the food supply. FDA said there is no need for either because the products are "no different."

Voluntary "clone-free" labels will be evaluated on a "case-by-case basis to ensure compliance with statutory requirements that labeling be truthful and not misleading."

Sound familiar? We’ve heard this line before about milk from cows treated with Monsanto’s artificial growth hormone, rBST. However, "no different" depends on what you’re measuring.

For example, cloning reduces Mother Nature’s natural preference for biodiversity. Biological variation confers resistance to disease and affords populations resilience in the face of adversity. For example, the Center for Food Safety reports that without genetic variation, a single disease can affect all animals simultaneously, potentially wiping out entire herds.

In Jan Weber’s award-winning documentary film, "As We Sow," University of Missouri rural sociologist, Bill Heffernan, explains how consolidation in the hog industry narrowed down breeding lines to three or four. Shrinking the gene pool "may be efficient in the short term," he said. But in the long run, the loss of diversity yields a "high-risk food system."

We have to ask: Who benefits from this technology? Small producers with heritage breeds at the farmer’s market? Or the larger industrial agricultural food system?

FDA’s approval opens up a $20 billion potential market to the livestock cloning industry. At $15,000 per single cloned bull or cow, we’re not likely to see these animals on small family farms.

Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, said two out of the three FDA reviewers who assessed the safety of cloned food products have "serious conflict of interest" because of their ties to the cloning industry. Yet "their identification and summary of their credentials on the FDA Web site leaves out their industry connections," he noted.

Personally, I share Hanson’s concerns about ethics and safety. Plus, I don’t want all my hamburgers tasting the same. Different breeds feature subtle flavor and nutrient differences. We would be wise to stop weeding out biological diversity, regardless of the means.

"On the positive side," Hanson said, "cloned food stimulates organic demand." Only the USDA’s certified organic label guarantees consumers clone-free food.

Here’s how you can help keep our food system honest, safe and humane:

1. Visit the Center for Food Safety for an overview of the topic and action alerts at www.centerforfoodsafety.org.

2. Let your representatives in Washington know how you feel about cloning and food labeling. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

3. Vote with your fork.