Meat and milk from cloned animals pose no special health risks, a draft report by the European Food Safety Agency issued on Friday concluded, a first step toward the eventual sale of such products within the European Union.
"It is very unlikely that any difference exists in terms of food safety between food products originating from clones and their progeny compared with those derived from conventionally bred animals," the report says.
The report acknowledged that cloned animals were prone to more diseases than conventionally bred animals, but said that humans would not suffer because unhealthy clones would be excluded from the food supply chain as is the case with conventionally bred animals.
The decision prompted an immediate outcry from environmental groups, who are already at odds with the agency over its conclusion that there is "no evidence" that genetically modified crops pose a health or environmental risk.
Calling the decision Friday "weak and unsatisfactory," Helen Holder of Friends of the Earth International in Brussels said:
"They clearly acknowledge that these animals have more diseases and that there is only limited data about the environmental impact, and then they go on to conclude that meat and products from cloned animal products are O.K. for Europeans to eat. It makes no sense."
Full Story: http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/11/europe/food.php
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Cloned Animals are Safe for Consumption, European Food Agency Says
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By Elisabeth Rosenthal
International Herald Tribune, January 11, 2008
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diana
Jan 13 2008, 07:16 PM
The original cloned animal died of lung cancer and arthritis at half the age her kind usually lives. Soon someone will be spinning that she secretly smoked -- and that she refused weight-loss drugs even though she damaged her own leg joints by such behavior....
QUOTE
Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA, was put down by lethal injection Feb. 14, 2003. Prior to her death, Dolly had been suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis. Although most Finn Dorset sheep live to be 11 to 12 years of age, postmortem examination of Dolly seemed to indicate that, other than her cancer and arthritis, she appeared to be quite normal. The unnamed sheep from which Dolly was cloned had died several years prior to her creation.
But, hey, what's little victim-blaming (or premature death) in the face of increased corporate profits??? Free market rules!