Would You Eat Cloned Meat? Scientists Claim Cloned Cattle is Safe to Eat
Would you eat cloned meat? I certainly wouldn’t, but according to the The Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, it is “unlikely to present any risk.” The worst part is that whether you’d eat it or not, you already may have. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture said that he is unsure if any cloned meat has been sold in North America. This means that you may have already eaten cloned meat without your knowledge.
Three other cases of cloned meat being sold in the UK have been documented by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Two of which involved Highlands farm bulls grown from embryos of a cow cloned in the US, with the third involving meat sent to a London butcher shop.
Despite cloned meat going incognito into the bellies of citizens worldwide, some scientists are now claiming that it is virtually identical to regular meat.
FSA chief scientist Andrew Wadge said: “The Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes has confirmed that meat and milk from cloned cattle and their offspring shows no substantial difference to conventionally produced meat and milk, and therefore is unlikely to present a food safety risk.”
This is the same claim that was made during the introduction of genetically modified foods, which many studies have linked to health risks. Even if the studies showing genetically modified foods to be harmful were proven wrong, there is no way to know the long-term effects, and the same goes for cloned meat. This is the most important element of both genetically modified and cloned food products.
There is simply no way to know what it does to the body in the long-term. There is some indication, however. Health experts have been studying genetically modified food and its interaction with the body, and the results are grim. This is why Germany has banned genetically modified corn, with India also questioning its safety.
Will we allow cloned meat to make its way to our dinner tables, or will we demand multiple independent studies done by scientists that have no financial ties to any organization that may be backing its approval? Chances are, however, that sneaky legislation will allow for cloned meat to be rushed out and unlabeled. This is what happened to genetically modified salmon very recently.
