Let Mikey Try It

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule soon that milk from cloned animals and meat from their offspring are safe to eat, raising the question of whether Americans are ready to welcome one of modern biology's most controversial achievements to the dinner table.

This is the lead paragraph from a story in the Washington Post about clone-generated milk and meat possibly coming into the marketplace soon. If they’re talking about it, you know it’s bound to happen, especially when you find out that it’s cheaper (clones nowadays can cost as little as $6,000 apiece, far less than it would cost to buy the finest boars) to produce than the standard natural product.

The claim is that there is little concern for food-safety and studies have shown that milk and meat from clones can’t be distinguished from that of normal animals. However, a survey done earlier this year by the International Food Information Council whether people would willingly buy meat, milk and eggs that come from clones if the FDA declared them to be safe, 63 percent of consumers said no. Count me in as part of the 63 %, because I don’t believe that we should mess around with Mother Nature.

As it stands right now, the FDA is not going to require labels on cloned products. That’s great! How is a consumer going to distinguish one from the other? The overseas market has hinted at rejecting American products due to the cloning issue. Unless the consumer in this country rises up and rejects these products, you will soon be eating Velveeta made from cloned milk.

Count me out. I’ll have my wine with imported cheese and I’ll gladly leave the bioengineered food to the lovers of breast implants, hair implants, tummy tucks, tush lifts, face lifts and all the other assorted faux products they embrace. It is fitting that phony people should consume phony food.