Cloned Meat and Milk Coming to a Store Near You!

With meat and milk from cloned animals expected to be allowed into the U.S. food supply in a matter of months, and their offspring already permitted, consumers have two choices.

CANDACE DOBSON/ViaGen

These bulls were cloned from Panhandle Slim, the 1997 Professional Bull Riders bucking bull of the year. Cloning advocates say cloned animals are to be used for breeding, not eating, and that it's unlikely a cloned animal would reach the food supply.

They can ignore the controversy and chow down with abandon, or they can quiz each of their grocery stores, restaurants and dinner hosts about their policy on using food developed with cloning.

That's because, unless Congress intervenes, regulators have decided that the products require no special labeling.

USDA revamps organic standards body

The body that monitors organic standards in the US is to be restructured, the US Department of Agriculture has announced.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), an office of the USDA, is reorganizing the National Organic Program into three branches - accreditation, auditing & training; and compliance & enforcement.

Lloyd Day, administrator of AMS, which oversees the programme, said it had been experiencing growing pains along with the organic industry. "This new year brings an opportunity to make changes in the programme to keep up with growth in the organic industry," he added.