Cattle producers who hoped cloned meat might appear on dinner tables in the new year have been dealt a potential setback in the form of an amendment to the 2007 farm bill. The amendment to S. 2302 passed the Senate last week.
The amendment would require the Food and Drug Administration to study the safety of meat and milk from cloned animals before they're sold to the public. HR 2419, the House version of the same bill, however, does not contain the same provision, which means the amendment could be axed in a closed-door committee meeting between the two chambers. Or, as often happens, the Senate and House will reach a compromise.
"It would be very surprising if the FDA flouted the will of Congress and moved forward on the cloning issue," said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute of the Consumer Federation of America.
The debate over whether food from cloned animals is safe to eat has been simmering for at least a decade. Cloning advocates say the technology can help farmers generate more high-quality meat and milk, and hence more profit. But because some clones are born unhealthy, food-safety activists say cloned food is unsafe, and animal-rights advocates say it's immoral.
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