Clones for Dinner

So, was anyone surprised that the FDA told us cloned livestock is okay to eat because, "it is beyond our imagination to even find a theory that would cause the food to be unsafe," on the very same day they also pointed out that, "currently, it is not possible to draw any conclusions regarding the longevity of livestock clones or [the] possible long-term health consequences" of cloning? ...

As Margaret Mellon, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "the possibility remains that [clones] may harbor subtle genetic defects that could ... make them unsafe for consumption." The truth is we don't know whether cloned livestock produces safe food or not, but we do know that biotech companies want cloned animals on the market, so the FDA is going to let them do it. ...

But even if cloned animals or their offspring really are safe to eat ...  having large numbers of nearly-identical animals in the food supply still poses a serious risk to all of us.

Monocultures, like the ones biotech companies would like to create, are notoriously fragile. ...