LONDON: Animal production using clones has become a major part of the food industry in recent years. The European Union on Tuesday said it didn't want anything to do with it, at least for five years. In its statement on the temporary ban on the use of animal cloning for food production, the EU did say it would allow imports of food derived from the offspring of clones to enter the market from the United States and other countries. It follows a call by European lawmakers in July that called for a complete ban on any food derived from clones and their offspring. In the July report, the EU lawmakers cited ethical concerns over the industrial production of cloned meat. Here in London, food expert and consultant for a top supermarket chain, Harold Jensen told Bikya Masr that it is a “precaution” due to the EU's “lack of resources to fully investigate and understand the health impacts of the use of cloned animal products. It is cautionary and not a final verdict on cloning,” he added. The Commission said in a statement on the temporary five-year EU ban that it was justified on animal welfare grounds, but added that banning imports of food from the offspring of clones was “unnecessary” and would disrupt global trade. “Food from cloned animals is safe. In fact, the scientific opinion is that it cannot be differentiated in any way from food from normally bred animals. The issue is animal welfare,” EU Health and Consumer Commissioner John Dalli told reporters. Dalli argued that food from the offspring of clones has no known animal welfare issues and that banning its sale would be extremely difficult because its origins are often untraceable. “Such a prohibition would lead to a ban of imports of any food of animal origin (meat, milk and processed products) from third countries allowing the cloning technique,” the report said. “We're not going to regulate for the world,” Dalli added. But animal welfare groups criticized the Commission's decision, saying it had bowed to pressure from third countries. “We do not accept the Commission's position that it would be impossible to enforce a ban that includes the offspring of cloned animals, as (other) meat traceability systems are already in place,” said Sonja Van Tichelen, director of the Eurogroup for Animals in comments published by Reuters news agency. Tentative support for the ban came from local London-based animal activist Rita Tarami, who said that arguments that say offspring of clones doesn't present animal welfare concerns “misses the reality” of animal production. “It is nice to see this as a first step, but we need to end all animal production, so let's say it is optimistic to think the EU can move in this direction, but we have to change society to understand the conditions animals in industrial production are put through,” she said. BM
