Number One Milk Company says No to Clones

WASHINGTON -- The nation's biggest milk company, Dean Foods, said Thursday it will refuse milk from cloned cows. The Food and Drug Administration gave preliminary approval to meat and milk from cloned animals and could grant final approval by the end of the year. Federal scientists say there is virtually no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats.


WASHINGTON -- The nation's biggest milk company, Dean Foods, said Thursday it will refuse milk from cloned cows. The Food and Drug Administration gave preliminary approval to meat and milk from cloned animals and could grant final approval by the end of the year. Federal scientists say there is virtually no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats.

Smaller companies such as Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Organic Valley previously have said they oppose milk from clones. Dallas-based Dean Foods is a $10 billion company that owns Land OLakes and Horizon Organic, among dozens of other brands. In a statement issued Thursday, the company said its customers and consumers don't want milk from cloned animals.

"Numerous surveys have shown that Americans are not interested in buying dairy products that contain milk from cloned cows and Dean Foods is responding to the needs of our customers," the statement said.

Milk companies worry that concern over cloning could turn people away from dairy products. So far, public opinion appears mixed. A September poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 percent of respondents were uncomfortable with animal cloning. And a December poll by the University of Maryland found that the same percentage would buy, or consider buying, such food if the government said it was safe.

Dean Foods spokeswoman Marguerite Copel said the company respects the FDA, "but we've got a customer and consumer base."

The company did not say whether it would use milk from the offspring of cloned animals. Cloning companies say the purpose of cloning is not to put many cloned livestock into the food supply. Instead, the goal is to make a genetic copy of a superior animal and then put its offspring into the food supply.

Source: Associated Press

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Cloned Animals not Necessary to Sustain U.S. Food Supply

The FDA's recent approval of cloned animals for introduction into the food supply offers no direct or immediate benefit to the general carnivorous public.


Cloned beef? No, thank you.

The FDA's recent approval of cloned animals for introduction into the food supply offers no direct or immediate benefit to the general carnivorous public.

Already our beef is plentiful. Kansas is second in the nation for the number of beef cattle on feedlots with 2.3 million head, according the the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the total number of feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 or more head is 10.7 million nationwide.

Also, cloned animals produce offspring with genetic abnormalities, as attested by K-State's own experts, so the long-term viability of cloned beef cattle is limited at best.

Certainly the element of cost does not work in its favor. Anything that is experimental and lab-intensive isn't likely to be economical. Reasonably priced cloned beef still is years away.

Petri-dish burgers also are not likely to taste any better than your average mass-produced cow. Their genes might be strong, but it's the way they're raised and fed that ultimately affect their sapidity.

If you're looking for superior taste or redeeming nutritive value, try grass-fed beef as an alternative to feedlot cattle, whose meat often is laced with antibiotics. Beef from cows that are allowed to graze is lower in calories and fat and higher in omega-3 fatty acids. For its slightly higher grocery store price tag, at least grass-fed offers some quantifiable benefits.

To date, cloned meat has shown no such benefits. Perhaps down the line it will be practical to have of pens of cows with identical genes, but ultimately, it won't improve the condition of the pot roast sitting on our dinner table.

Setting aside the debate over the ethical soundness of cloning, currently, there is no reason to support the introduction of cloned meat into our food supply.

Megan Moser, Kansas State Collegian, 7/8/2007

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