Articles in this document:
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FDA
decision to approve sale of cloned animals incites debate
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No Cloned
Animals Allowed
FDA decision to
approve sale of cloned animals incites debate
Christine Cea
OhMyGov!
Sep 09 2008
Attention all meat-a-tarians; you could one day be eating the remains of one of Dolly the cloned sheep's offspring.
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of food products from cloned animals and their offspring. (Prior to that, farmers and ranchers self-imposed a moratorium on the sale of these food products.)
Controversy over the safety of food products derived from cloned animals has remained a contentious issue for years, with myriad non-profit groups and businesses opposed to their sale. The latest move to approve the consumption of cloned foods, which appear in supermarkets with no distinct labeling, has reinvigorating the debates.
FDA based its decision to approve cloned foods for market on a report it published early this year that addressed the safety of cloned-derived food, the second of this type (the first was introduced in 2006). The report found no plausible health effects linked to the consumption of these animals.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) quickly followed suit, supporting the FDA's decision to allow the sale of cloned food products and deeming such food safe for consumption.
Opposition to FDA science has been fierce from the beginning. In 2007, the Center for Food and Safety (CFS) released a report, "Not Ready for Primetime," claiming that the FDA analysis bases all their findings on "wishful thinking."
The report argues that the FDA, in its first scientific review of available research on the safety of cloned food products, failed to find adequate sources of peer-reviewed studies from which to base their assessment of the hazards. They went on to discuss the potential public health dangers given abnormalities that occur during the cloning process.
"Despite FDA's claim that there is ‘no difference' between food from clones and their progeny and food from naturally-bred animals, most of the studies they reviewed found troubling abnormalities and defects in animal clones which could pose food safety risks," said the report. "The FDA review contradicts itself, first claiming that genetically defective clones will pose no risk to the food supply because the sick animals will be detected and removed, but then admitting that some sick and defective clones may in fact end up as food."
In response to such comments, the FDA set out to improve their study, issuing the 2008 version with updated research and concluded with greater certainty that cloned food products were indeed safe to eat.
"After reviewing additional data and the public comments in the intervening year since the release of our draft documents on cloning, we conclude that meat and milk from cattle, swine, and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "Our additional review strengthens our conclusions on food safety."
To assuage the fears of nervous consumers, the FDA created an entire website section devoting to this issue and to communicating these findings. But a number of people and businesses remain unconvinced.
Major food companies, such as Tyson Foods Inc and Smithfield Foods Inc, have pledged to avoid using cloned animal products because of safety concerns. Many other food producers and retailers have joined them in promising not to use products derived from cloned animals.
Some groups, like the Human Society, simply oppose clones products for ethical reasons. They argue that genetic engineering and cloning of farm animals will only increase the already horrid factory conditions these animals face, and decrease their already poor quality of life.
Moral issues aside, many people are disturbed by the lack of labeling over which products are from a cloned animal, as the FDA has not agreed to force companies to label products and ingredients from clones.
"Under our current laws, FDA may require specific food labeling if there are any safety concerns, or if there is a material difference in the composition of food," the FDA commented. Since they have yet to find any problems, labeling is technically not a necessity.
The latest FDA criticism came on the wings of the European Food and Safety Authority's new decision, published July 28, 2008, that bans cloned animals or their offspring from the European Union marketplace. Although the report notes that "at present there is no indication that clones or their progeny would pose any new or additional environmental risks," EU scientists remained weary of future results, arguing that "uncertainties in the risk assessment arise from the limited number of studies available."
ohmygov.com
No Cloned Animals
Allowed
By Pork news staff (Monday, September 08, 2008)
Pork Magazine
Twenty food companies have committed to not using or
supplying milk or meat from cloned livestock. The companies, including
Smithfield Foods, Kraft Foods, Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods, were responding to a
survey conducted by the Center for Food Safety, a consumer group that opposes
animal cloning. Polls have shown that consumers are uncomfortable with the idea
of eating products from cloned livestock. The ban does not include offspring of
clones.
A Kraft spokesman, says the company has told suppliers it
will accept only ingredients from conventional animals. "The surveys we've
seen indicate that consumers aren't receptive to ingredients from cloned
animals," says Basil Maglaris, with Kraft. For now, the company’s pledge
applies only to cloned animals. Maglaris points out that the company will
monitor consumer reactions to the idea of products from clones' offspring.
Similarly, other companies are taking the same approach.
However, CFS officials cite eight surveyed companies that
indicated they would not knowingly use food from the offspring of clones. These
companies include the organic retail cooperative PCC Natural Markets in the
The International Dairy Foods Association reports that it
isn't ready to embrace products made from cloned animals or their offspring. A
Ben & Jerry's spokesperson, says the company isn't planning to carry its
clone-free status on its ice-cream cartons. Rather, it will rely on the Center
for Food Safety other such groups to publicize it. CFS has petitioned the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration to require labeling on products from cloned
animals and their related offspring. The group also wanted to see animal
cloning categorized as a “new animal drug.”
FDA ruled in January that products from cloned cattle,
swine, goats and their offspring "are as safe to eat as the food we eat
every day,"
Source: Dow Jones Newswires
porkmag.com