Cloning-for-food Growth Seen Slow If FDA Approves

WASHINGTON —Regulatory approval could catalyze the nascent U.S. cloning industry, but leading firms say growth would come slowly as they battle to win consumers over to the concept of food from cloned animals.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could issue a final ruling as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals poses no special risks to consumers.

Mark Walton, president of Texas-based ViaGen, which clones cows and other animals, is hoping the ruling will finally open the door for greater cloning in animal agriculture.
"Only after that will the community really open up and begin to embrace it on a larger scale," Walton said.

A little over a decade after scientists in Scotland rolled out Dolly, a sheep that was the world's first cloned mammal, the U.S. industry remains small with just three major firms.

The ruling would be good news for proponents of the technology and would presumably bring an end to the voluntary ban on marketing food made from cloned animals or their offspring.

Read the full Reuters story here.