Sour taste of cloned milk

Yet, as the boundaries of science continue to be pushed back on an

almost daily basis, the time has come for a moral debate on what is ethical or not in a civilised society, and the effectiveness of existing safeguards.

This is reiterated by a farmer's claim that milk from the offspring of a cloned cow was now on sale in Britain. Even though Dairy UK, speaking on behalf of the agricultural industry, said there was no health risk, the matter requires urgent investigation – if only to assuage the understandable concerns of consumers.

These changes are so sensitive that the strictest of regulations are governing the trial into the growth of GM potato crops that is being undertaken by the University of Leeds.

Contrast this with the apparent shortcomings at the Foods Standards Agency which appears to have been left in the dark about the new, and controversial, source of milk – even though European laws rightly state that food produced from cloned animals must pass a safety evaluation test and get a licence before going on general sale.

A full inquiry is required. The implications do not just extend to consumers; there are also, potentially, ramifications for animal welfare and the assertion, by campaigners, that cloned embryos can be large and result in painful births.

Yet the most profound point is that a farmer has a capability to produce milk from such an animal without any kind of debate about whether this is in the public interest – or whether it is a development that is morally acceptable or not.

For, given the growing relationship between shoppers and farmers, it is more than likely that public demand will be more than satisfied by naturally-produced milk that comes from Yorkshire dairy herds rather than any scientific substitute conceived in a laboratory.