1.
FDA SAYS FOOD FROM CLONES IS SAFE
The U.S. could become the
first country to allow meat and milk from cloned
animals to be sold as food. 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 (see:
http://tinyurl.com/ylb5mo
). 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 (see also:
http://tinyurl.com/y24bcm
). "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
(for example, see: http://tinyurl.com/y5wyxd
). 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. 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). The FDA announcement,
assessment, and instructions for submitting comments
can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/v5mph
See also:
ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND FOOD SAFETY
IN FARM ANIMALS
Theriogenology, Jan. 1, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ym5oez
FDA: CLONED LIVESTOCK IS SAFE TO EAT
The Associated Press, Dec. 28, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/28/cloned.food.ap/index.html
FDA OK MAY SPARK 'CLONE-FREE' LABELS
Associated Press, Libby Quaid, Dec. 29, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_sc/cloned_food
MEAT AND MILK FROM CLONING ARE SAFE, 2 FDA SCIENTISTS
SAY
The Los Angeles Times, Karen Kaplan and Jia-Rui Chong,
December 23, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/y5e934
COULD YOUR NEXT STEAK BE A CLONE?
The Wall Street Journal; Jane Zhang, Scott Kilman
and Lauren Etter; Dec. 30, 2006
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/12292006/worldnation-ph-wn-clone.html
FDA: CLONE-DERIVED MEAT, DAIRY 'AS SAFE AS' CONVENTIONAL
PRODUCTS
Draft Risk Assessment Addresses Producer Risk Management,
Consumer Safety
Agriculture Online, Jeff Caldwell, Dec. 28, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ylxljm
SENATORS WANT FDA TO DELAY CLONED ANIMAL RISK ASSESSMENT
Dairy Herd, December 27, 2006
http://www.dairyherd.com/directories.asp?pgID=675&ed_id=6041
FDA PLAN WOULD OK CLONED MEAT
The Christian Science Monitor, Peter N. Spotts, December
29, 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1229/p01s01-ussc.html
2. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL
“As discomforting as most Americans
find the idea, the Food and Drug Administration's
tentative approval for allowing the sale of cloned
meat and milk makes a certain kind of sense. The plan
is a logical extension of an industrialized food system
that treats plants, animals and nature with an often-reckless
disregard.” Thus begins an editorial by the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board, published
on New Year’s Eve. It continues: “For
animals, it's a system of routine cruelties: docking
pigs' tails, clipping chickens' beaks and taking cattle
off grazing land to live their lives standing in manure
in so-called confined animal feeding operations. It
makes sense only to the corporate forces behind the
food system that they should be able to make money
and create efficiencies by replacing any form of natural
reproduction with $15,000-a-shot cloning attempts.”
The piece goes on to quote from the
book “The Omnivore's Dilemma,” by Michael
Pollan (see: http://tinyurl.com/yacaro
): “E.coli outbreaks spring from raising beef
in the stinking cities of confined animal feeding
operations, known as CAFOs. Pigs' tails must be docked
(with pliers, no anesthetic) because the intelligent
animals, prematurely weaned at 10 days rather than
the normal 13 weeks to be placed in confinement, try
to exercise their instincts by sucking and chewing
on one another's tails. ‘A normal pig would
fight off his molester, but a demoralized pig has
stopped caring,’ Pollan writes. ‘'Learned
helplessness' is the psychological term and it's not
uncommon in the CAFOs, where tens of thousands of
hogs spend their entire lives ignorant of earth or
straw or sunshine, crowded together beneath a metal
roof standing on metal slats suspended over a septic
tank.’ After docking, the remaining stub is
so hypersensitive even the most depressed pig will
fight back, preventing infection from chewing. That
avoids the cost of treatment and the alternative:
‘underperforming production units are typically
clubbed to death on the spot.’" The editorial
concludes: “If the administration sticks to
its plans, consumers will face new dilemmas about
their food system, their government's inaction and
their own eating choices.”
LIVING FOOD: RECKLESS CLONING
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Editorial Board, December
31, 2006
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com:80/opinion/297720_cloned.html
3. PRION-FREE CATTLE
Two years ago, cattle lacking prions
were genetically engineered by a research team working
from South Dakota and Tokyo, according to a recent
article in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Prions
are proteins that are naturally produced in animals.
An abnormal form of them is believed to be the agent
responsible for “mad cow disease” (a.ka.,
bovine spongiform encephalopathy: BSE). Of the 12
calves initially produced, three have been killed
to confirm that their brains did not become infected
after exposure to BSE prions. The surviving animals
are now being directly injected with BSE. It can take
as long as two years for the disease to be detected
in infected animals. At least three years will be
required for additional testing to see if the cattle
remain prion-free and whether the absence of prions
causes any problems. (Other research has suggested
they may be crucial for processes ranging from blood
formation to memory.)
Prion-free cows could be used to produce cow serum,
a substance popularly used for many biological experiments.
The Washington Post reports: “They were created
so that human pharmaceuticals can be made in their
blood without the danger that those products might
get contaminated with the infectious agent that causes
mad cow.” At least 180 people worldwide have
died in the last 20 years after eating BSE-infected
meat. Similar prion-based diseases also are found
in sheep, deer, elk and mink.
USDA RESEARCHERS EVALUATE PRION-FREE
CATTLE
ARS News Service, Sean Adams, December 31, 2006
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/061231.htm
MAD COW-FREE COWS?
Associated Press, Jan. 2, 2007
http://www.komotv.com/news/tech/5055126.html
SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCE MAD COW BREAKTHROUGH
The Washington Post, Rick Weiss, January 1, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/y3vo8h
4. CATTLE VACCINE AGAINST E. COLI O157:H7
A vaccine that prevents E. coli O157:H7
from proliferating in the digestive systems of cattle
has been given preliminarily approval by the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency.
The virulent bacterial strain has caused highly publicized
human disease outbreaks in the U.S. in recent months
(see, for example: http://tinyurl.com/ykxkay
and http://tinyurl.com/ukce8
). The vaccine, which has been tested on more than
30,000 cattle over the last four years, has reduced
the shedding of E. coli O157:H7 in their manure by
up to 70%. It is expected that the vaccine will be
given full license next year. It is also being studied
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
VACCINE CLAIMS TO HALT E. COLI STRAIN
Newsday, Delthia Ricks, December 30, 2006
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/905875.html
CANADA OK'S E. COLI CATTLE VACCINE
Meating Place, Tom Johnston, Jan. 1, 2007
http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/webNews/details.aspx?item=17056
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