Excerpt:

The production of foodstuffs on this planet has never in the history of the human family been subjected to change that has been as dramatic and far-reaching as the change wrought over the past decade by biotechnology and, more recently, by cloning. The change has reached a new plateau with the recent announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the agency sees no identifiable health risks from meat and milk from cloned animals.

Consumers have been lulled into complacency by centuries of incremental and almost imperceptible change in the production of commodities. Now, consumers are being confronted by fundamental and far-reaching changes in crops, in meat, meat-food products and milk products entering the food chain directly or through the processing of crops, livestock and livestock products into consumable foodstuffs. Most of the changes are difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to evaluate. The problem has been compounded, in some countries, by lack of confidence in the regulatory processes.

Moreover, consumers, confronted by articulated concerns over food safety and environmental complications, typically have no reason to favor foods that are the product of cloning. Foods that have been modified genetically or through cloning typically carry no price advantage and, thus far, do not offer a taste, appearance or other desirable feature to offset any concerns about food safety or the environment. Therefore, any significant concerns are translated into a tendency to discount the perceived value of foods that have been so modified.

If labeling of modified foods on a mandatory basis were to become widespread, consumers would be in a better position to register their preferences.

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