I've been hearing a great deal about what is evidently an up-and-coming controversy, that of the use of cloned animals in meat and milk production. Today the French government, world-renowed for its bravery and acceptance of new things, has cast in its lot: (these are the words of their agricultural minister)


Ahh, the french. Always doing things differently because they can't do it the same way as those filthy bourgeois americans.

Instead of relying on rhetoric to do my dirty work, let's look at the facts behind cloned meat and milk (which, incidentally, is still several years off by most accounts):

First off, Don't let the word "cloned" fool you. As I've stated on my blog several times, just because something is cloned should hardly cause one to bat an eyebrow. Identical twins, for example, are clones of each other. (I've always said the only thing that could be better than Beth would to have Beth twins, but I digress...) A clone is an exact genetic copy of another creature, sometimes achieved through genetic engineering.

Let's take a step back. The term "genetic engineering" is incredibly broad, and much abused. It can refer to a breeder crossing and re-crossing rose plants in his hothouse to generate a specific desired shade. It can be a milk producer selecting cows based on their milk production. Exotically, it can be a laboratory worker moving genes between species. Or, rather mundanely, it can be a laboratory worker generating a clone of a given animal.

Cloned animals are used for a very specific reason, and that's to preserve a desired trait. If you're a milk producer, you've likely used the previous definition of genetic engineering to select for only the best milk-producing cows you can. After all, why would you want anything less? The problem arises is that every now and then, even though you mate a cow who is a great milk producer with a bull who has produced great milkers, you'll get a dud. Mating and raising a calf to maturity, only to discover that it isn't the star you hoped it'd be costs a lot of cash. There's already quite the market for proven bull semen, as any look at a breeder's catalog will tell you. It's like printing money, once you find that primo bull.

Wouldn't it be great, then, if you could make a copy of your best milk producer? That is, in its entirety, is what cloning is. For beef producers, you simply clone your beefiest steers over and over. Got a chicken that lays a dozen eggs a day? Forget golden eggs, just clone that sucker! There's no magic, there's no cross species genes, they're just copies of each other, a whole feedlot of identical twins.

Of course, there are drawbacks. The problem with having a multitude of identical genetic stock is that in nature, genetic variability is the basis for survival. It's the very bedrock of natural selection. In a naturally-occurring herd, it is very possible that a disease might come along that would kill 90% of the herd, but because of genetic variation, 10% will survive to go on and preserve their genes. In a genetically identical environment the whole herd will probably bite the dust.

Now, the average herds we get our meat and milk from are already very similar genetically, and bear little resemblance to what would be a "naturally occurring" herd anyway. Most of our milk and meat producers already live in very stringently-controlled environments which bear little resemblance to their natural habitats. (Mike reminds me that corn, their primary foodstuff, isn't even usually a part of their natural diet!) This is hardly optimal, of course, but it does allow for big mac and inexpensive protein that would otherwise be inaccessible for us po' folk.

What you really need to do is take a step back and see who both benefits and who stands to lose something through the introduction of cloned animals. The payoffs are obvious for those who use cloned animals. The main corporations that stand to lose from their introduction is boutique producers and professional breeders. These are the individuals who will use unscientific rhetoric and scaretactics to rally ignorant consumers.

You, however, are not ignorant, especially if you keep abreast with what the terms and underlying science is. Hope this has been informative, let me know if you have questions.