Most of us would have heard of the controversy surrounding the farmer in Scotland that had admitted to the fact that he had purchased cloned embryos from America and bred a cow that is known to have entered the human food chain. This led to an uproar from many quarters and to calls for the Government to make this area of law more transparent.
As far as the farmer was concerned, according to the law surrounding genetically modified agricultural crops and food there was no breach of law. He was perfectly entitled to purchase gametes from cloned animals from another country. The law was broken, however, through the fact that he failed to declare that a cloned cow had been reared and that the animal's meat had consequently entered the food chain.
Although extensive tests have been carried out on the meat and dairy products from cloned animals, none of these have ever proven that there is any risk to public health. In fact, all test results have shown that there is no discernible difference between cloned and none cloned animal products.
Is this enough to put the public's mind at rest, though? It would definitely appear not. Most of the public fervently believe that the cloning of animals is taking matters too far - playing God, if you like, and completely going against the laws of Mother Nature.
One thing is clear and that is that the Government need to look at this area of the law as soon as possible. Technology is waiting for no man, especially in the agricultural industry and the long and drawn out legislative process may become a hindrance in this regard.
