This afternoon the Food and Drug Administration gave its official approval of food coming from cloned animals and their offspring. In its final report, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, the agency stated that it had taken all moral, religious and scientific factors into account, and concluded that food from cloned animals is just as safe as food coming from ordinary animals.

There are currently 600 or so cloned animals in the United States, and officials note it may be several years before milk or meat from cloned animals even is ready for the consumer market. Because they’re so expensive to produce, most of them right now are only used for breeding purposes.

“Many farmers and ranchers are already using other assisted reproductive technologies, such as artificial insemination, embryo transplant, and in-vitro fertilization to produce superior animals,” said Bruce Knight, under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs with the USDA, which supported the FDA in its announcement. “Cloning is another breeding technology that has evolved and has now been demonstrated to be safe.”

Let’s see how consumers demonstrate their support.

Last week saw two very different answers to a question that’s on the minds of many retailers and consumers: What to do about all those plastic bags?

For New York City, the answer is recycling. The city council there passed a resolution requiring supermarkets 5,000 square feet or more in size, or with five or more locations in the city, to provide in-store recycling bins for plastic bags.

China on the other hand — not exactly renowned for its environmental stewardship — imposed a ban on ultra-thin plastic bags and a fee on all other varieties. The state department there urged citizens to instead use cloth sacks and baskets to carry groceries.

The benefit of recycling is that it allows retailers to continue using low-price plastic bags. But critics argue it won’t keep most consumers from continuing to trash the bags they use (also, plastic never gets fully recycled). A total banning seems to address the problem at its root, but some groups say that just shifts the burden — often to paper bags, which require tons of petroleum to produce.

Last March, San Francisco imposed a plastic bag ban for all large-scale supermarkets and drug stores, at the same time giving these retailers the option to use compost-friendly bags or bags made from recycled paper. Environmental groups lauded this decision, but others say the shift to the more expensive biodegradable bags amounts to an unfair hidden tax on consumers.

Retail advocates like the California Grocers Association believe San Francisco missed the boat by failing to address consumer behavior.

“It’s about attacking the problem at its root,” said Tim James, local government relations manager with the CGA. “Just by banning a certain type of bag, you don’t necessarily change bag-use behavior.”

Many would argue, however, that behavior isn’t the issue. It’s cutting down on the 84 billion plastic bags that Americans use every year, and the 12 million barrels of oil used to produce them.

This is a lively, ongoing debate, and we’d love to hear your side of it. Should retailers have to recycle plastic bags, or ban them outright? Or should they institute usage fees? Let us know what you think.