Public strongly against cloned animal meat, study reveals
Pastor Dale Morgan
Public strongly against cloned animal meat, study reveals*
* James Meikle
* The Guardian,
* Friday June 6 2008
Strong public opposition to eating food derived from cloned animals and
their offspring has been revealed by the first research into the subject
commissioned by a UK government body.
People's concerns about safety, ethics and animal welfare are combined
with suspicion of biotech companies, farmers, supermarkets and
regulators, finds the study for the Food Standards Agency.
Consumers are struggling "to identify any convincing benefits of the
technique" but feel they face "an unstoppable juggernaut". They want
safety checks similar to those in clinical drug trials, with such food
tested for years before being sold.
However, the prospect of food from the offspring of cloned animals has
come closer with US regulators clearing the way for its use, although in
the EU the prospect of it is proceeding more slowly.
Creative Research, the firm commissioned by the FSA to do the £55,000
study, said British consumers feared being "railroaded" into accepting
cloned meat and would demand such food be clearly labelled. The firm led
two three-hour workshops on the issue with 70 people, in Aberdeen,
Aberystwyth, Belfast and Croydon. The study found men seemed less
concerned about the food than women - who did most of the food shopping,
and, said the survey, engaged "at a more emotional level ... and were
more worried about animal welfare and food safety". The report says:
"Most participants felt animal cloning represented a quantum leap ... to
'interfering with mother nature'." And, irrespective of feelings about
it "everyone was worried that this was the start of a slippery slope"
that would eventually lead to human cloning.
Meanwhile, a draft scientific opinion for the European Food Safety
Authority says that, on current knowledge about animal cloning: "There
is no expectation that clones or their progeny would pose any new or
additional environmental risks compared with conventionally bred
animals." The US Food and Drug Administration says meat and milk from
cow, pig and goat clones and their offspring are "as safe as food we eat
every day".
EU law would require clone-derived food to be safety evaluated as a
"novel food" and approved by all 27 EU member states before being sold.
The European Group on Ethics in Science and Technology doubts whether
cloning animals is ethically justified, "given the current level of
[animal] suffering and health problems".