How Cloning Could Change Farming

C H I C A G O, July 16 -- A revolution is on the horizon for America's animal farmers, one that could completely change the way we get our milk, eggs and beef.

Cloning is quickly and quietly becoming more of a reality. Already an experimental dairy farm run by the biotech company Infigen in Wisconsin is producing milk by the gallons. And barring a major intervention by the federal government, you could see it in your grocery store as early as next year.

Infigen's president, Michael Bishop, sees a future where there will be clones of clones, where dairy farmers can predict its herd's productivity with stunning accuracy, completely eliminating the damaging fluctuations of the marketplace.

"You have a founder animal that you know can produce 30,000 pounds of milk. Take its clone, and if you do this, this and this, you'll expect 30,000 pounds of milk. You'll know ahead of time what the production is going to be," said Bishop.

Cloned Prized Bulls and Organ Farms

Farmers could raise cloned animals to supply organs for transplantation into humans, a rancher could make the genes from a prized bull live forever, reproducing the invaluable genetic line over and over.

"If you have the ability to produce a cow, a good cow, that has tremendous potential," said Bill Perry of the Dairy Farmers of America. "The dairy farmer in this country, when [the technology] is viable, will use it."

Farmers are waiting for the technology to catch up to their imaginations. Some are saving cells from their prized dairy cows and bulls, hoping that once the technology works its way down to the average farmer, they will be able to take advantage of it.

But the science is not quite ready. Studies put the success rate of cloning at a mere 3 percent to 5 percent, and what few clones are actually born usually develop strange abnormalities. Even 5-year-old Dolly, the cloned sheep, is obese, and scientists don't know why.

"There are certain unknowns being increasingly brought to the attention of science that raise questions of concern," said Joe Mendelson of the Washington-based Center for Food Safety.