Unmasking the FDA’s Policy on Cloned Food

The FDA is still considering whether to allow meat and milk from cloned animals into America's food chain, without so much as a warning label. Polls show that Americans oppose cloned foods 3 to 1, and the livestock and dairy industries have repeatedly said that cloned hotdogs and milkshakes make little business sense. Neverthless, the push for cloned livestock has been insistent for years.

In 2003, approval was said to be six months away; that didn't happen, presumably because of fears of public outrage, but the public relations campaign continued. At the very end of 2006, a long-awaited draft "Risk Assessment" was published, inspiring a flurry of ill-informed puff pieces intended to legitimize the technology. That failed: the FDA received over 100,000 public comments, overwhelmingly opposed to food from cloned animals.

Officials then paused to consider their final decision. Some reports say that FDA approval will come later this year. Others suggest that it may take two years. The mainstream media seems to accept that it's only a matter of time, no matter what the public wants - and no...