1.Food Standards Agency Needs to get a Grip on Cloned Milk Sales
2.Soil Association comment on claims that milk from cloned animals is entering the food chain
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1.Food Standards Agency Needs to get a Grip on Cloned Milk Sales
GM Freeze, 2 August 2010
GM Freeze is calling for urgent action by the Food Standards Agency to ensure that no milk from cloned dairy cows enters the food chain and for procedures to be put in place to prevent the import of cloned embryos from the US.
According to reports in the Daily Mail today one UK farmer has claimed that milk from a cloned dairy cow is illegally entering the UK food. [1] The potential for cloned animals to enter the UK, and their products to be marketed, was highlighted by GM Freeze in 2008 and, at that time, most companies contacted were ill-prepared to deal with cloned products as few had coherent policies in place. [2]
Cloning farm animals is not legal in the European Union and many safety and ethical issues have been raised which include [3]:
Ӣ The health and welfare of the cloned embryo and animals.
Ӣ The welfare of the surrogate mother.
Ӣ High failure rates from cloning procedures.
Ӣ Food safety of cloned products.
Ӣ Increased problems in UK farm animals from lack of genetic diversity.
In many areas basic research has not been carried out. On 6 July the EU Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a complete ban on food from clones and their offspring and for an immediate moratorium on all such products until the Commission can bring forward the required legislation.
At present it is has not been confirmed if the cloned dairy cattle in the UK have also been genetically modified. Genetic modification raises additional safety and regulatory issues.
Commenting Pete Riley of GM Freeze said:
“There needs to be urgent action to by the Food Standards Agency and other regulators to prevent to import of cloned animals into the UK and the sale of their progeny and products from them. The safety, wisdom and ethics of cloning are still being debated in the EU and the general public have hardly had a chance to put their views.
“Cloning is about increasing production, and therefore profits, at the expense of animal welfare. It fits into the model of intensive production in dairy farming dependent on imported animal feeds (such as soybeans and maize) and fertiliser-fed grasslands, which is not sustainable in the long-term.
“The FSA needs to get a grip on what’s happening and appear to have been caught out despite the warnings of such an incident occurring. We would also expect retailers to take immediate steps to prevent cloned milk products going on sale, and we are surprised that they have not told their suppliers to avoid cloned cows already.”
ENDS
Calls to Pete Riley 07903 341065
1. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1299509/Cloned-cows-milk-sale-Britain-Investigation-dairy-farmers-admission.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
2. See http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/clone_chart_final.pdf
3. See http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/cloning_consult_response.pdf
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2.Soil Association comment on claims that milk from cloned animals is entering the food chain
Soil Association, 2 August 2010
http://www.soilassociation.org/News/NewsItem/tabid/91/smid/463/ArticleID/432/reftab/57/t/Soil-Association-comment-on-claims-that-milk-from-cloned-animals-is-entering-the-food-chain/Default.aspx
Commenting on the claims made by a UK farmer that milk from cloned animals is entering the food chain, Emma Hockridge, Head of Policy at the Soil Association [1] said:
There are a number of problems associated with cloning farm animals - perhaps the most immediate being the serious animal welfare issues associated with the cloning process. Cloning involves applying invasive and cruel techniques on the surrogate mothers that are used for producing the clones and, as the process is currently very inefficient, many deformed animals are created and die for each surviving healthy clone.
There are a number of other concerns: about the safety of meat and dairy products from cloned animals; that the use of clones will reduce genetic diversity within agriculture; that the use of clones will promote the development and spread of animal diseases; as well as concerns about the ethics of cloning.
The use of cloned farm animals fundamentally undermines the freedom of choice of farmers and consumers to avoid these animals and products, because of a lack of transparency in their regulation and traceability. At a time when Government is expressing a desire to move towards ‘honest labelling’ of food, so consumers understand what they are purchasing and know its provenance, cloned animals entering the food chain must be tackled with the utmost urgency.
Just three weeks ago, the European parliament voted for an immediate moratorium on clones in the food chain until legislation expressly prohibiting foods from cloned animals and their descendants can be put in place [2].
Ends
For media enquiries please contact the Soil Association Press Office:
Georgia Catt, 0117 314 5170 / 07717 802 183 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
[1] The Soil Association is the UK's leading environmental charity campaigning for sustainable, organic farming and championing human health.
[2] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/067-77912-186-07-28-911-20100706IPR77911-05-07-2010-2010-false/default_en.htm