I hope that the same situation does not play out on cloning [for meat from cloned cows, pigs and goats]. After all, our collective failure to grapple with genetic modification on its own terms been accompanied by the equally unfortunate failure to bring its benefits to cultures that might gain the most from it — insect-resistant cassava or drought-tolerant maize could be a boon to subsistence farmers in Africa. Cloning technology, too, has many possible benefits. It has the potential to produce products that are safer, healthier and tastier — bacon that has heart-protective Omega 3’s, say, or milk produced by cows that are stronger and thus need fewer antibiotics. It might seem “just weird,” but cloning deserves a fair hearing, one in which impassioned language yields the floor to responsible discourse.
James E. McWilliams, “Food Politics, Half-Baked’ in The New York Times
Isn’t this like rearranging the saucepans in the Titanic’s kitchen?
