AFP - Wednesday, January
16
US authorities
approve cloned animal foods
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The US food safety authority on Tuesday
approved meat and milk from cloned animals, clearing the way for
them one day to appear on store shelves despite opposition on
ethical and health grounds.
"Meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the
offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as
food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals,"
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Randall Lutter told a
news conference.
Lutter said his agency would not require food made from cloned
animals or their offspring to be specially labeled, but producers
could apply for the right to label their foods "clone-free."
The FDA however said it did not have enough information to rule on
whether cloned sheep and other cloned animals were safe to
eat.
The agency unveiled an advisory report based on six years of risk
assessment studies to decide whether to give the green light for
marketing foods from clones.
The ruling was delayed by strong resistance from food safety and
animal rights groups, as well as the US dairy industry, which fears
its image and exports will be damaged.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said cloned animal foods
should not be marketed for the time being, pending consultations on
introducing them.
"USDA is encouraging the technology producers to maintain their
voluntary moratorium on sending milk and meat from animal clones
into the food supply during this transition time," USDA official
Bruce Knight told reporters.
The European Commission has vowed to consult consumers before
giving its own ruling in May. The European Food Safety Authority
said meat and milk from healthy cattle and pig clones is probably
safe for humans to eat.
A Washington-based campaign group, the Center for Food Safety,
condemned Tuesday's announcement.
"The FDA's bullheaded action today disregards the will of the
public and the Senate -- and opens a literal Pandora's Box," the
group's director Andrew Kimbrell said in a statement.
"FDA based their decision on an incomplete and flawed review that
relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force
cloning technology on American consumers."
US senators last month passed a farm bill that included a measure
requiring the FDA to delay its ruling until further studies are
carried out.
One of the sponsors of that measure, Maryland Senator Barbara
Mikulski, accused the FDA of acting "recklessly" on Tuesday.
"Just because something was created in a lab, doesn't mean we
should have to eat it," she said in a statement.
"If we discover a problem with cloned food after it is in our food
supply and it's not labeled, the FDA won't be able to recall it ...
the food will already be tainted."
More than 60 percent of Americans believe it is morally wrong to
clone animals, according to a 2005 Gallup poll.
The cloning industry welcomed the news. Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO) chief Jim Greenwood in a statement hailed what
he called the FDA's "comprehensive scientific review."
"Livestock cloning is the latest step in a long history of
reproductive tools for farmers and ranchers, and can effectively
help livestock producers deliver ... high-quality, safe, abundant
and nutritious foods," he said.
It will still be years before meat and milk from clones appears in
US stores, reports say. The animals involved, clones of the highest
quality beasts, are too valuable to slaughter or milk and better
used for breeding.
"Clones are intended to be used as elite breeding animals to
introduce desirable traits into herds more rapidly than would be
possible using conventional breeding," the FDA said in its
report.
Major US pork processing firm Smithfields said it did not plan to
produce meat from cloned animals.
"The science involved in cloning animals is relatively new," the
company said in a statement. "We will continue to monitor further
scientific research on this technology."
BIO, which represents leading cloning companies including key
player ViaGen Inc., last month launched a registration system to
track cloned livestock throughout the food processing chain.
It said the program would address market concerns when the
voluntary moratorium is lifted.