Cloned Food

I'm surprised there's been so little fuss in the UK about cloned food.

On 11th January the European Food Standards Authority (Efsa) announced its conclusion that products from cloned pigs and cattle are unlikely to be a threat to food safety or the environment but that products should be labelled as cloned. It admitted that cloning has significant animal health and welfare issues. It was silent on the ethics of cloning. Comments from the public are requested by 25th February.

The next day the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technology, reporting to the European Commission said "considering the level of suffering and health problems (to animals) EGE has doubts as to whether cloning animals is ethically justified". It went on to say that it does not see convincing arguments to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring.

But where is the outcry to get cloning stopped? Yes, the Soil Association, RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth have spoken out against the practice, the media have reported the factual news, and supermarkets has said that they will not sell cloned products.To date though, there have been no questions raised in Parliament, no newspaper editorials providing a view, no surveys done among the public to see what they feel about the issue. The NFU say they will be guided by the science, which sidesteps the ethics, and see no need for labelling. Major food processors do not appear to have commented.


Contrast this with what has happened in America where the FDA announcement on 14th January that food from cloned cattle, pigs and goats is safe to sell into the food chain has caused outrage. The ruling was made in the teeth of four years of furious opposition from consumers, around 60% of whom have consistently said in research polls that they oppose cloned food on ethical and safety grounds, and from Congress for reasons of ethics and lack of robust data. Fury has been heightened by the decision not to require specific labelling, leaving the public with no idea whether they are eating cloned food or not. Big food processors and retailers have declared that they will not sell cloned foods. Even the NFU has said that if cloned food is to be sold then it needs to be labelled saying "consumers have a right to know if their food comes from cloned animals". The continued outcry has had an effect. The US Department of Agriculture has asked for the moratorium on cloned food sales to be continued to "allow sufficient time to prepare so that a smooth and seamless transition can occur". Which has been translated as buying time so that consumers can be educated.


It all raises the question of how on earth cloning animals for food has got as far as it has in the US. Clearly there are issues of ethics, unease, and compassion, meaning that consumers don't want to buy the products, food companies don't want to process them, and retailers don't want to sell them.

Getting back to the UK, why is it all so quiet here? Perhaps an announcement from Europe does not have the same impact as one from here at home. Perhaps people think it will never happen. Perhaps a short news report in the brain dead days just after Xmas isn't sufficient to raise awareness.Hopefully its just that it's early days in the process, and when the penny drops the UK public will spring into action with widespread and spirited campaigning. It worked on GM foods.