The Food and Drug Administration ruled Thursday that it is safe for humans to eat meat and milk from cloned animals. Although the meat and milk from cows, pigs, and goats will probably not hit supermarkets until 2008, I must say I am a little weirded out.
Okay, so the likelihood of me ever eating beef or pork from a cloned animal is highly unlikely, says USA Today, because a clone is too valuable to butcher. Instead, most likely carnivores like myself will soon experience eugenically produced meat. That means ranchers can improve their livestock “by replicating their prized animals, preserving valuable traits such as high meat or milk production capacity, fertility or disease resistance,” the Wall Street Journal writes. I guess that means better quality meat and milk for consumer…right?
Now I’m no vegan, I definitely like a good burger or steak. But what does this cloning mean to the animals themselves? In a few years we are going to see a race of livestock that comes straight out of a Mary Shelley novel. I find it strange that what would be deemed unacceptable amongst humans is so easily given the green light with farm animals.