Cloning food animals - What choice have we?

THE world faces a huge food challenge over the coming decades. Production will have to double if the world’s poorest are not to face a very uncertain time.

Food producers and consumers may have to accept technologies that now seem unattractive. One of the consequences of this challenge was seen yesterday when a row between European states and the EU parliament blocked new controls on food from cloned animals.

Genetically modified crops and cloned food animals are the frontline of this debate and it is right that anything destined for our tables be subject to the most rigorous controls.