Son of Frankenfood?

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themselves—will be sold. This matters because cloning remains a difficult process, and many attempts fail. Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, EFSA’s executive director, concedes that ‘there are issues involved in animal welfare’, but is convinced that the food-safety concerns are unsubstantiated.

The second reason cloning may not fall into the GMO trap lies in the simple fact that the food industry appears to have learned some lessons from the Monsanto saga. Despite their exuberance, the biotech firms involved in cloning took care to praise the American government’s decision to maintain a ‘voluntary’ moratorium on food from the cloned animals themselves.

Unlike Monsanto, which tried to ignore such problems, today’s genetic pioneers are eager to avoid trade friction. They emphasise their desire to build up stocks of cloned animals slowly (only about 600 exist in America, for example), and emphasise their scheme for tagging and tracking all clones.

The third reason to think cloned food may take off, even in places like Europe where GMOs have fallen flat, is the most straightforward one. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds and other early GMO products helped to reduce pesticide use and increase yields, which benefited producers but offered no compelling benefit to consumers.

In contrast, if the industry’s claims are to be believed, food from clones can be tastier, of higher quality and perhaps even healthier. That is because breeders will be able to use cloned animals to produce meat that is reliably leaner, better marbled or more tender, as customer whims dictate.

That points to an ironic twist. Despite these advantages over GMOs, cloned foods may yet hit a needless snag. Eager to avoid any stigma, the industry has persuaded America’s regulator not to require any special labels on food from the progeny of clones. Instead, it says it will label only food that comes directly from clones, should it ever be allowed on sale.

Critics of cloning are predictably displeased. Andrew Barker of Ben & Jerry’s complains that the FDA’s decision on labelling “has really created headaches for us with our supply chain”. His customers and some foreign markets will reject cloned foods, he says, but he is not sure how he will be able to verify that his dairy products do not contain milk from the progeny of clones.