Cloned animals should NOT be farmed for food, say consumers

Sean Poulter
Mail Online
October 14, 2008

Cloned animals and their offspring should not be farmed for food according to the overwhelming majority of consumers, an EU study has revealed.

Most Britons, like their counterparts in the rest of Europe, would object to clone farming.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The issue has leapt on to the public agenda after the Daily Mail revealed that eight cattle, the offspring of a prize-winning clone milking cow in the USA, had been born on UK farms.

Currently, there are no laws to prevent meat and milk from these animals going into the food chain. Nor is there any legal requirement to label food from clone offspring.

The EU and Britain’s Food Standards Agency(FSA) are in the throes of deciding how clone farming should be policed.

A new survey of 25,000 consumers across the EU makes clear families are unhappy at this new era of ‘Frankenstein Food’ farming.

The European Commission study found 87per cent of people in the UK – 84per cent in Europe – believe we don’t know enough about the long-term health and safety effects of eating food from these animals.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The findings of the study triggered demands from animal welfare groups for the EU to impose a ban on clone farming and the imports of clone animal food from the USA and beyond.

They pointed to alarming levels of animal suffering. Many clone animals die in the womb or soon after from painful organ failure and deformities.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 9:03 am

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