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WHO'S BACKING THE GOOD OLE FDA NOW ?

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Times Online December 28, 2006


Meat cloning decision provokes fury
Tim Reid in Washington and Nigel Hawkes



The sale of milk and meat from cloned animals moved a step closer today after the US Government ruled that the products were safe to eat and could be sold in supermarkets without labelling.

The landmark draft decision, taken by the US Food and Drugs Administration, was condemned by consumer groups and food safety experts, who gave warning of the implications for food consumption throughout the world.



FDA officials said that they saw little problem with the controversial technology, which could result in cloned food being sold in the US within months without any labels identifying its origins. They added that cloned food products, if approved, could also be exported.

Authorities in Britain have yet to address the issue of the sale of food from cloned animals, including those approved by the US — cattle, pigs and goats. However, precedents set by the FDA are often followed by UK and European authorities. The Food Standards Agency said last night that it had not received an applications for the marketing of food products from cloned animals in the United Kingdom.

The move would have to be approved by the European Union before such products could be introduced, even if they were only being imported from the US. The UK’s Advisory Committee for Novel Foods would also be consulted.

The FDA, which overseas food safety for the US Government, determined after a five-year review that food from cloned livestock was as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. The decision was all the more controversial because the agency declared that special labels were not needed to alert shoppers to its origin.

Decrying the ruling, consumer groups gave warning that cloned food would enter the food chain untested on humans, and from a field of science in which cloned animals are often born sick or with severe abnormalities. “Consumers are going to be having a product that has potential safety issues and a whole load of ethical issues tied to it, without any labelling,” said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Washington-based Centre for Food Safety.

Some US consumer groups maintain that surrogate mothers, in which the cloned animals are grown, are treated with high levels of hormones. They claim that clones are often born with severely compromised immune systems and receive massive doses of antibiotics, opening the way for large quantities of pharmaceuticals to enter the food supply.

The US National Academy of Sciences also warned recently that the commercialisation of cloned livestock for food production could increase the incidence of food-borne illness, such as E-coli infections.

Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat senator from Maryland, wrote in an open letter to the FDA: “Just because a scientist can manufacture food in the laboratory, should Americans be required to eat it?” Experts say it would probably take years for sales of cloned food to begin in earnest, because the technology’s high cost makes it prohibitive for most farmers. It costs about $15,000 (£7,500) to clone one dairy cow. But already several hundred cattle among America’s nine million have been cloned.

The FDA pointed out that many consumers confuse cloning with genetic modification. To produce a clone, the nucleus of a donor egg is removed and replaced with the DNA of a cow or other animal. A tiny electric shock coaxes the egg to grow into a copy of the original animal. Supporters of the technology say that it will be used primarily for breeding good milk and meat producers, and that produce will most likely be drawn from offspring, rather than the cloned animal.

The FDA said that meat and milk from clones was as safe to consume as products derived from naturally raised animals. Within six to eighteen months, cloned animals were “virtually indistinguishable” from conventionally-bred livestock, it said. “Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day,” said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Centre for Veterinary Medicine.

Final approval for lifting the current ban on cloned food could come early next year. The agency will accept comments from the public for the next three months before announcing a final decision.

The Consumer Federation of America said that it would run a publicity campaign to ask food companies and supermarkets to refuse to sell cloned food. Polls show already that most Americans do not favour eating such a product, and many food companies are skittish about selling cloned food.

Opponents also maintain that cloning results in high failure rates and distress for the cloned animals. The Centre for Food Safety points to the example of Greg Wiles, whose Maryland farm was the first to have cloned cows. He says he told the FDA that one of his cloned cows was having terrible health problems, but was ignored.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Looks like the FDA says NO for now anyway-- for now anyway....

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US: FDA says no to clones, for now



2 January 2007| Source: just-food.com



The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it will continue to ask producers and breeders not to introduce food from animal clones into the food supply.



The agency has assessed such foods as safe, but continues to address the associated risks.




The FDA has issued three documents on the safety of animal cloning – a draft risk assessment, a proposed risk management plan and a draft guidance for industry.



Its draft risk assessment reportedly found that meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats, and their offspring, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. The assessment was peer-reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health.



Due to limited data on sheep clones, in the draft guidance FDA recommends that sheep clones not be used for human food.



“Based on FDA's analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and other studies on the health and food composition of clones and their offspring, the draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day,” said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. “Cloning poses no unique risks to animal health when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in US agriculture.”



The proposed risk management plan addressed risks to animal health and potential remaining uncertainties associated with feed and food from animal clones and their offspring.



The proposed plan outlined measures that FDA might take to address the risks that cloning poses to animals involved in the cloning process, including a set of care standards for animals involved in the cloning process.



“Because the release of the draft risk assessment and proposed risk management plan marks the beginning of our interaction with the public on these issues, we are continuing to ask producers of clones and livestock breeders to voluntarily refrain from introducing food products from these animals into commerce so that we will have the opportunity to consider the public's comments and to issue any final documents as warranted,” said Sundlof.



The draft guidance for industry addresses the use of food and feed products derived from clones and their offspring, directed at clone producers, livestock breeders, and farmers and ranchers purchasing clones. It includes the agency's current thinking on the use of clones and their offspring in human food or animal feed.



In the draft guidance, FDA does not recommend any special measures relating to human food use of offspring of clones of any species. The FDA said that because of their cost and rarity, clones would be used mainly to pass on naturally occurring, desirable traits such as disease resistance and higher quality meat to production herds.





just-food.com
 
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Anonymous

Guest
General News
Major British grocers to boycott meat from cloned animals

By Pete Hisey on 1/12/2007 for Meatingplace.com




Reacting to reports that a cloned cow from the United States has birthed a calf on a British farm, virtually all major British grocery chains have pledged to boycott meat from clones or their offspring.

Tesco, Wal-Mart's Asda chain, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer were among the chains participating in the boycott, which would include meat, milk or "anything else from clones or their offspring," according to an Asda spokesperson.

British law prohibits the sale of meat or milk from cloned animals, but makes no mention of the offspring of clones.
According to The Daily Mail, the British Food Standards Agency is in emergency talks with European Union officials about the gap in regulations that allows products from clone offspring to be sold.

The Food and Drug Administration is in the process of approving the sale of meat from clones and their offspring in the United States, and has received strong criticism from consumers' groups.

On Thursday, a major dairy processor, Petaluma, Calif.-based Clover Stornetta, announced that it will not accept milk from cloned animals.
 
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