FDA says meat, milk from cloned animals safe.

Reuters ^ | 10/30/03 | Randy Fabi

[WinOne4TheGipper]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Milk and meat products from cloned cattle, pigs and goats are safe for consumers to eat, according to a Food and Drug Administration document obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

The FDA findings bring the agency one step closer to determining whether to allow the commercialization of food from cloned animals. A final policy decision is expected next year.

Cloned animals -- which are genetically identical -- are attractive to the industry because ranchers are able to keep their favorite livestock, providing better tasting meat and more milk and eggs.

"Edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food consumption risk," said the 12-page executive summary of an FDA report. A copy of the report was provided to Reuters by an industry source.

The FDA is expected to release the executive summary of the new report on Friday. The entire report will be released at a later date.

The nascent food cloning industry, which includes companies such as ViaGen Inc., owned by Exeter Life Sciences, and Cyagra, is eagerly awaiting the FDA's decision on commercialization. Smithfield Foods, the top U.S. pork producer, has a technology development contract with ViaGen.

Industry officials hope the FDA will make a decision on commercialization quickly as some companies have had difficulty raising funds from investors because of the uncertainty surrounding the issue.

An FDA spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Biotech companies clone animals by taking the nuclei of cells from adults and fusing them into other egg cells from which the nuclei have been extracted. Livestock have already been cloned for sale to producers.

Some consumer groups have urged the FDA to address the moral and ethical concerns of animal cloning before approving its commercialization.

If the FDA does allow it, consumers are most likely to purchase meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals, the agency said. Their parents will probably not be slaughtered for food because of their high price tag.

A cloned calf can sell for as much as $82,000. An average calf sells for less than $1,000.

Food from the offspring of cloned animals were the most likely to enter the U.S. food supply, the FDA said.

[DumpsterDiver]

SENDINTHECLONES

DON'TBOTHERTHEY'REHERE.

Eating cloned cows doesn't sound very appetizing to me. Let Mikey try it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[maestro]

FDA says meat, milk from cloned animals safe.

FDA.......LOL

better,.....IFDA

:-)

[DumpsterDiver]

FDA says meat, milk from cloned animals safe.

And if it isn't, we'll just give a quickie approval to a drug that'll fix ya right up.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

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[longtermmemmory]

this will be to yield patented livestock. The way they corporations tried to outlaw farmers holding back seed for next year's planting (as opposed to buying more patented seeds) they will do the same thing to livestock. So far the clones are weaker copies of the original. It is like a xerox copy after another and another and another. Cloning is analog NOT digital.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[aimhigh]

Just to make sure this stuff is safe, the FDA won't allow labeling. God forbid anyone should be able to trace a new ailment to the stuff. The FDA is corrupt.

[Marie Antoinette]

The time to buy your own "open pollinated" livestock is approaching :-)

I tease the husband about getting a Jersey cow, maybe I ought to take it more seriously?