First it was, "Hello Dolly" and soon it may be "Hello Elsie," and "Porky" as well.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday it is moving closer to approving the sale of meat and milk from cloned farm animals in grocery stores.
As could be expected, there are many unhappy about the eventuality of products from cloned animals hitting supermarket shelves.
Jaydee Hanson, program director for the Center for Food Safety, told ABC News, "We are not convinced that this is safe food. We haven't seen the facts that would convince us."
Dr. Stephen Sundlof, chief of FDA veterinary medicine, disagreed. "Meat and milk from cattle clones and their offspring are as safe as that from conventionally bred animals," he said.
A poll recently conducted by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 60 percent of Americans say they are uncomfortable with the idea of consuming meat and milk from cloned animals. Most of the Pew survey respondents cited safety as their primary concern, followed by religious and ethical issues.
Some are advocating that if the FDA goes ahead with its approval, that items from cloned animals should be labeled as such. That may be nearly impossible to do since cloned animals will be processed along with non-clones in a large number of plants.
"It's very possible that these products will end up on grocery-store shelves without any specific labels identifying them as having come from cloned animals," said Michael Fernandez, executive director of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.
Discussion Questions: Will there be widespread acceptance by consumers of meat and milk from cloned animals? Should special labeling be required to identify products derived from cloned livestock?