As if the daily worries Americans concern themselves with aren’t enough – credit card debt, an eerily-looming recession prospect, trying to stick to New Year’s resolutions to work out everyday – now we have to be concerned about whether the foods we eat are actually natural. Yes indeed friends, with the scientific leaps and bounds that led to Dolly the Sheep, now are we opening the doors to cloning other animals, which leads us right to the prospect of foodstuffs, say meat and milk, from cloned animals.

There isn’t technically anything wrong with products from cloned animals – they are still technically “real” even if they were created in a lab. If women don’t have a problem wearing synthetic diamonds on their ring fingers, then they shouldn’t have a problem eating products from cloned animals, right? Yet, somehow ingesting non-naturally-created products strikes a far different chord than wearing one on your finger.

Due to this consumer dilemma, it seems inevitable that – in spite of the fact that the government has at this point deemed products from cloned animals safe to eat – companies will differentiate themselves along cloned or non-cloned product lines. Undoubtedly the question will become what each side will mean; what being a company that sells foodstuffs from cloned animals means as compared to a company that sells foodstuffs that are from non-cloned animals. Indeed, although all these companies will be selling essentially the same products – cheese and meat, let’s say – somehow the quality of these products will be debated, based solely on the particular “type” of animal from which these products came.

Undoubtedly consumers are now going to hold even more power than they ever had previously within the marketplace. It has been said that consumer spending accounts for something around three-quarters of the American economy’s revenues, and this will surely become evident in how these consumers react to those companies that sell products derived from cloned animals, compared to those whose products remain derived from non-cloned animals. How will consumers react? Which of the two “types” of companies will stand to take a revenue risk?

It would seem at this point in the process that those companies making foods from cloned animals will stand to suffer losses. After all, Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company, has already come out to state that its ice cream comes from regular cows and not cloned animals, and that this will continue to be the case.

However now, as seems to be the case with so many things, there could be a hitch in this differentiation between companies. According to an article posted on msn.com, “For food that does come from clones, the Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to require labels.” That’s right folks; you’ll have to trust a given company to tell you whether their foods are made from cloned animals. Granted, if things continue in this relative vein, companies may boast that their foods are made from non-cloned animals, leaving their competition to stay mum on the subject.

Of course, those companies that would boast that their products do not come from cloned animals will have to be careful. For, “if the statement implies that that particular product might be safer than another product, FDA would not allow that.” However, the msn.com article continues, “there may be room for providing a contextual statement that is truthful and not misleading” and this is surely the route that these particular companies will take should they choose to parade the fact that their milk and meats come from non-cloned livestock.

There are those who would caution all the fretting and worrying to be stopped, at least for now. After all, cloning is a relatively new process, and as such we can’t be running around frantically, positive that food from these cloned animals will be on our grocery store shelves any day now. Due to the newness of the cloning process, it is used comparatively sparingly in the “birthing” and raising of livestock, and as such it will surely be awhile before it is in enough demand that we would be seeing cloned products on our grocery store shelves.

In this same vein, it has also been stated that the Food and Drug Administration is still at least a full year away from finalizing any approval of food derived from cloned animals, so really these are worries which are unnecessary for the time being. However, worries are never rational, and as such people are surely going to have them. This is especially true when it comes to what foods they will be willing to put into their bodies.

This is also why the issue of foodstuffs from cloned animals also brings up the promotion of the organic lifestyle. According to organicconsumers.org, “cloned animals are not permitted in certified organic foods.” It’s really as simple as that. You will know that you are not eating cloned products, without need of a label boasting it, and on top of all that lack of worry, you will also know that you are eating the most healthful, and most pesticide-free food you can get.

It’s your choice, of course, what you put into your body, and it may be less your choice whether or not you can afford to be worried about whether or not you are eating cloned foodstuffs. The fact remains, however, that for every nervous consumer, there is another who will sleep easy at night knowing that the cheese and milk they purchased for their families are clone-free, and just what they always have been.