In this section:
What is cloning?
How does cloning work?
Designer meat for dinner?
Is it safe?
Are clones exactly the same?
How does cloning impact the animals?
What You Can Do
Did You Know?
For More Information
What is Cloning?
Cloning is a scientific process that allows scientists to copy the genetic traits of a plant or animal to create one or more living replicas. In 1996, Scottish scientists successfully cloned the first mammal ever—a sheep, which they named "Dolly."1 Ever since, cloning has been a highly controversial topic.
The debate centers around two primary issues: concern about the moral implications of cloning animals and humans, and the unknown health consequences of eating foods made from the offspring of cloned animals. This page focuses primarily on the second issue, and explains current knowledge surrounding the use of cloned animals in the agriculture industry.
How Does Cloning Work?
Scientists clone animals by destroying the nucleus of an unfertilized egg in the host animal and replacing it with a nucleus from a cell of the body from another animal. At this point, the egg of the host animal is considered fertilized and is planted into the womb of the host animal. By using this technique, the baby will develop into an animal that has identical genetic traits as the animal that provided the cell nucleus to the cloning process.2
Designer Meat for Dinner?
Over the past decade, mice, mules, horses, deer, oxen, cows, pigs, dogs and cats have all been cloned. With the advancement in cloning technology, particularly in farm animals, the potential for its use in industrial meat and dairy production has become a real concern for consumers.
Scientists expect that in the future cloning technology will be commonly practiced for replicating breeding animals. This would allow the meat and dairy industries to take advantage of the genetic traits of prized cows and bulls without being limited by the animal's natural lifespan.3 However, cloning is a very expensive process, so the clones will most likely not be raised to be slaughtered for meat, but instead will produce offspring to be used for food production. There is also strong interest in using the milk from herds of cloned dairy cows for the general food supply. In addition, there is concern that once a cloned animal can no longer produce/perform, they will most likely be slaughtered for food.
As of today, semen from cloned bulls is already being shipped to breeding programs all over the country.4 Research is also in the works for hogs with increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids. This is done by incorporating a gene from earthworms into the genetic material of pigs and is still very much in the experimental phase. Eventually, scientists hope to increase the nutritional value of chicken and beef cattle using a similar process.5
Is it Safe?
In early 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that, despite significant controversy and many unanswered questions, meat and milk from cloned animals is safe to eat. The agency did ask that the livestock and dairy industries uphold a 2003 voluntary ban on the use of cloned animals in any phase of food production. However, no such ban is in place for the offspring of cloned animals, and foods containing meat or dairy from cloned animals or their offspring are not required to be labeled. In short, it is very likely that meat from cloned offspring is in the general food supply at this very moment.
With so many unknowns about the science and safety of cloning, consumers are overwhelmingly opposed to meat and dairy from cloned animals or their offspring. Year after year, consumer polls show a strong dislike for cloning technology in their food. In a recent survey, 62% of consumers said they would be "very unlikely" or "somewhat unlikely" to buy animal products from cloned animals.6 Additionally, during the Congressional comment period in 2007, 150,000 people wrote to oppose the introduction of cloned meats and dairy products to the food supply.7
Are Clones Exactly the Same?
Despite claims that food from clones is safe, many believe that there has not yet been an adequate amount of research conducted to prove that this is true. What is clear is that many scientists believe cloning produces animals that are more likely to become sick than animals that are born naturally, resulting in an increased use of antibiotics and other medical interventions. Dolly the sheep, for example, developed premature arthritis and lung disease that led her creators to euthanize her after just six years--roughly half the lifespan of a normal sheep.8
The developmental and genetic abnormalities that tend to characterize cloned animals and their offspring raise concerns about the use of cloning technology in food production. Dolly's creator, Ian Wilmut, has stated that small imbalances in a clone's protein, hormone, or fat levels could affect the safety and quality of its milk or meat.9
How Does Cloning Impact the Animals?
Some believe that the cloning of animals is a violation of animal welfare, as it puts both the sick and deformed clones and their surrogate parents through unneeded suffering.10 Cloned animals tend to have more problems during childbirth, resulting in higher rates of spontaneous abortion and death among host mothers. In cattle, for example, 3 of 12 host mothers died during pregnancy.11
Researchers involved in cloning have noted severe physical deformities that have occurred in cloned animals, including oversized navels, oddly-shaped heads (cows that have heads shaped like those of bulldogs), immune deficiencies, diabetes, heart and lung damage, kidney failure, brain irregularities, and malformed arteries.12 In fact, 2007 data shows that cloning success rates are as low as 10%.13
If a cloned animal survives birth and the first six months of its life, the FDA maintains that the animal is healthy. However, significant health problems in cloned mice have manifested up to 15 months. In cattle or other large animals, such long-term health problems would take years to discover.14
Additionally, the creation of entire herds with identical genetic material will reduce the biodiversity of livestock breeding pools. Such limited gene pools make the animals more susceptible to disease and weather conditions that a cloned breed may not have been bred to withstand. The long-term environmental, human and animal health impacts of breeding programs based on clones remain unknown but show a direct opposition to the principals of the Precautionary Principle which essentially proposes that new technology be proven safe before being widely introduced.
What You Can Do
The use of cloning technology in livestock production is not illegal. Therefore, there is a chance that there are already beef and dairy products on the market that came from the offspring of cloned cattle. If you want to be absolutely sure that you and your family are not eating meat and dairy from cloned animals, purchase your food from small, local farms run by farmers you trust.
- You can find local beef and dairy farms in the Eat Well Guide, or by visiting a farmers market in your area.
Did You Know?
- It costs about $20,000 to clone a cow.15
- Scientists have managed to clone 15 kinds of mammals to date, none of which have been primates.16
- A Texas-based company began cloning champion horses in March 2006 that can sell for as much as $150,000 per horse.17
- House cats can be cloned privately for $32,000.18
For More Information:
Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. Food & Water Watch challenges the corporate control and abuse of food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. Cloning is currently one of their campaigns.
Center for Food Safety works to protect human health and the environment by curbing the proliferation of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture.
Page last updated October 2008.
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