FDA Claims Cloned Animals Safe to Eat.

Thursday, December 28, 2006
The Associated Press

Read the full article: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/28/cloned.food.ap/index.html

Having studied the matter for five years,the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on December 28th that cloned cows, goats and pigs are "virtually indistinguishable" from noncloned animals, and that milk and meat from them and their offspring "is as safe as the food we eat every day." Officials from the agency said they did not have enough information to determine whether food from sheep clones is safe.

Due to the high price of clones, they would primarily be used for breeding purposes with their offspring instead being used for food. Cloning has always been legal but the FDA has since 2001 requested that industry voluntarily refrain from selling cloned animal products to consumers. The moratorium is to remain until the FDA finalizes its policy, which may be as early as the end of this year . Milk and cloned animals who are no longer considered productive could end up as human food, and some within industry say the offspring of clones have already gone to slaughterplants.

Opposition
In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences stated the following in regard to the approval of food from clones: "[T]he paucity of evidence in the literature on this topic makes it impossible to provide scientific evidence to support this position" In late December 2006, a bipartisan group of senators asked the FDA to review new evidence before releasing its risk assessment. Recent public opinion polls regarding animal cloning cite ethical, religious and social concerns. In a September poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, 64% of respondents said they were uncomfortable about such food. "While the FDA says no one has proved there is any danger from clones, the burden should be on the FDA to prove convincingly that they are safe," said Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety.

Animal Suffering
The FDA's announcement has also been denounced by other consumer advocacy groups and by animal protection organizations, which note that more than consumer safety is at issue. They point out that animal cloning is inherently unpredictable and hazardous and has resulted in a high number of painful deformities in the experimental animals' offspring. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has released a statement calling for a government forum to address animal welfare and other ethical concerns.

"Cloning poses no unique risks to animal health when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies," said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. However, Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), contends that the FDA is ignoring research that shows cloning results in deformed animals and higher death rates than other reproductive technologies. "Our government, in effect, says it is okay to increase the number of suffering animals as long as they don't suffer in new ways," she said. CFA will be asking food companies and supermarkets to refuse to sell food from clones.

Labeling
Foreman also wants food from clones to be labeled as such. According to Sundlof, if food from clones is indistinguishable the FDA doesn't have the authority to require that it be so labeled. For those interested in labeling food as not having come from clones, he cautioned: "If the statement implies that that particular product might be safer than another product, FDA would not allow that." The National Academy of Sciences has recommended that the government set up a way to identify and track products from clones.

Industry Reservations
"Approval of cloned livestock has taken five years because of pressure from big food companies nervous that consumers might reject milk and meat from cloned animals," states an Associated Press article hyperlink: http://tinyurl.com/sbu3s According to The Christian Science Monitor: "Some dairy groups and meat producers have reportedly expressed private concerns that they will loose business if cloned meats and milk work their way into burgers and shakes." Dairy industry research shows that overall sales could drop 15%. U.S. meat exports could also be affected. The Wall Street Journal reports: "mindful of potential consumer trepidation toward cloning, some large meat and dairy producers and their trade associations were taking a wait-and-see attitude. And a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., one of the nation's biggest food retailers, said it had no plans to sell products made from cloned livestock."

"I think the last thing the industry needs is something consumer activists can use," a beef company executive explained in an industry survey, "There is already enough bad press on natural labeling, using CO (carbon monoxide) for processing, animal rights, so I don't really see this as a positive. I can see the headlines now: 'Frankenstein Beef!'"

90-Day Public Comment Period
The FDA assessment, which consists of a draft risk assessment, a proposed risk management plan and a draft guidance for industry, is subject to a 90-day period during which the public can submit comments on it (deadline is April 2nd).