Cloned cuisine?

WASHINGTON - The government is poised to allow cloned meat and dairy products into stores and restaurants, possibly as soon as the end of 2007.

The move is being hailed by some livestock ranchers who see the genetic improvement of food as a healthy step into the future.

Others, including some farmers, worry that it could hurt the marketing of U.S. food and that, sold unlabeled, such foods could reach the kitchens of unknowing consumers.

"If they're going to make us guinea pigs, the least they can do is label it," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the food industry, announced the beginning of a 90-day public comment period Thursday, a step in the process toward declaring food from cloned animals safe to eat. The comment period will end on April 2.

After consumer and industry groups weigh in, the FDA will decide whether to lift a voluntary moratorium on meat and dairy products from cloned animals for consumers.

A preliminary FDA risk assessment "has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

This isn't the first time the FDA has supported cloned food; it also released a preliminary risk assessment in 2003.

An animal clone is a genetic copy of an animal -- similar to identical twins but born at different times, according to the FDA.

According to FDA officials, there are only a few hundred cloned cattle, swine and goats in the United States. It costs about $20,000 to produce a clone, making it unlikely that clones themselves would be marketed for the grill. Most cloned food would come from the offspring of cloned animals and not the clones themselves, Sundlof said. But when clones reach a certain age and are no longer useful for reproduction, they could be butchered.

The Minnesota Beef Council backs the technology. "We would agree that if the FDA and USDA consider milk and meat from cloned animals to be safe, we value their judgment and would consider their decision to be in the best interest of the consumer," said Ron Eustice, the council's executive director.

Polls have shown that a majority of the public opposes animal cloning. According to a Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology poll this year, 64 percent of respondents said that they were uncomfortable with animal cloning.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and a bipartisan group of six other senators sent a letter this month to the Department of Health and Human Services to call for more input on cloned food. According to the letter: "Clearly, consumers are not clamoring for this new food technology." The senators also said that research showed that lifting the moratorium would result in a 15 percent drop in the purchase of U.S. dairy products.

But Will Hueston, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, said he thinks the controversy will die down with time. The public generally fears anything new that they don't know much about, he said.

Much of the concern is over whether consumers will know what they're getting. The FDA has not decided whether to require labeling, although it's likely it won't, according to Sundlof.

"There's a lot of technology out there," the Beef Council's Eustice said. "If labels have to be required for everything, pretty soon you aren't going to have room for the information."

But one Minnesota store owner said the public wants to know where its food comes from. "There are already so many loopholes [in labeling], so to move away from that, to consider not labeling what's been cloned, is unfair to the public," said Kristin Tombers, co-owner of Clancy's Meats & Fish in Minneapolis, a neighborhood butcher shop that focuses on products from family farms.

Abel Ponce de Leon, a molecular geneticist and associate dean for research at the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources and Sciences at the University of Minnesota, said although there's nothing to be concerned about with cloning, people should be able to know what they're eating. "It's a matter of choice," he said, "like choosing between organic or not."

It will be up to restaurant owners if they want to serve cloned food. "My instinct tells me [cloned] animals shouldn't be any different," said Lenny Russo, executive chef at Cue, a Minneapolis restaurant that features local products. "I'm pretty certain that none of my farmers will be selling any cloned animals, so it's not a pressing issue to me. But for the consumer, I'll withhold judgment until I have all the facts."

Staff writer Lee Svitak Dean contributed to this report.

Brady Averill • baverill@startribune.com