[tt] WP: Food From Clones Safe, E.U. Draft Says

[Premise Checker]

Food From Clones Safe, E.U. Draft Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011100849_pf.html

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 12, 2008; A06

The European Food Safety Authority yesterday declared that meat
and milk from healthy cloned cattle and pigs is "very unlikely"
to pose risks to consumers, opening the door to possible European
sales of those controversial foods in the future.

The highly anticipated draft scientific opinion of the European
agency comes just days before the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration is due to release its final report on food from
clones, which is expected to reach virtually the same conclusion.
Some backers of the fledgling agricultural cloning industry have
said they hoped that a positive report from Europe might help
ease the process of gaining acceptance by American consumers.

It remains unclear, however, whether the European Union will
ultimately approve the sale of cloned products, and if so, under
what conditions.

Unlike in the United States, such decisions in Europe must
incorporate social and ethical factors. And the European public
broadly supports the "precautionary principle," which calls for
society to err on the side of caution when risks are uncertain.

Moreover, the European agency, which provides scientific advice
to the European Commission, noted in its report that many cloned
farm animals have health problems, including life-threatening
physiological abnormalities. In Europe, where animal welfare is a
much higher-profile issue than it is in the United States, that
reality could also become a stumbling block.

The 47-page report concluded, however, that unhealthy clones
would be screened out by standard food inspection methods. And,
echoing earlier assertions by the FDA, it found that milk and
meat from healthy clones are as nutritious and safe as milk and
meat from ordinary animals.

"Based on current knowledge there is no expectation that clones
or their progeny would introduce any new food safety risks
compared with conventionally bred animals," the report said.

The report also concluded that sexually produced offspring of
clones -- far more likely to enter the food supply than clones
themselves, which are too valuable to slaughter -- are fully
normal.

Scientists at a handful of companies around the world, including
at least two in the United States, want to clone prize-winning
beef cattle, dairy cows and pigs as a way to bring more
consistently high-quality products to market. But consumer
reaction has been chilly.

Some fear that clones may harbor hidden health risks, while
others decry the high death rates seen in newborn clones and the
suffering of their surrogate mothers, which can have trouble
giving birth to their often oversize offspring.

Despite that wariness, and despite European agriculture's general
lack of interest in adopting the technology, the EU has been
under international pressure to rule on the products' safety --
in part so other nations can export their meat and milk products
there without worrying about trade challenges.

The issue is also of interest in Europe because farmers there use
semen from American cattle.

New Zealand has released a positive report on the safety of food
from clones and their progeny, and Canada and Argentina are
expected to follow soon.

The "draft risk assessment" released by the FDA in December 2006
found no unique health risks from meat or milk from clones or
their offspring. The agency has been reworking that analysis,
taking into account new science and the more than 30,500 public
comments it received. It is expected to release its final report
any day.

Last February, noting progress made by the FDA, the European
Commission asked its Food Safety Authority also to provide a
"scientific opinion" on the safety of foods from clones and an
assessment of cloning's effects on animal health and welfare and
on the environment.

Yesterday's report was a first draft of that opinion and will be
open for public comment for 45 days. It asserted that the
introduction of cloned animals into agriculture will not affect
the environment.

"Cloning does not involve changes in DNA sequences and thus no
new genes would be introduced into the environment," it said.

The report noted that a different European advisory group is
preparing a study of the ethical implications of bringing cloning
to European agriculture. And it recommended further research,
especially on older clones, very few of which, it said, have been
carefully studied.

Joseph Mendelson, legal director at the Washington-based Center
for Food Safety, which has petitioned the FDA to delay approving
cloned food, predicted that Europeans would demand marketing
restrictions on the products.

"Human health is only part of the equation in Europe," Mendelson
said. "And even if Europe gives it a green light, we believe they
will require labels."

The FDA has said it is unlikely to require that cloned food be
labeled as such if no novel risks are identified.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a Washington-based trade
group whose members include the nation's two largest farm animal
cloning companies, applauded the European action and encouraged
the FDA to release its long-delayed final report.

Foreign correspondent Molly Moore contributed to this report from
Paris.