With the government set to allow food from cloned animals onto the market, producers are promoting an industry-led system to track cloned livestock.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to give final go-ahead for the sale of cloned meat and milk before the end of the year. Food producers have agreed not to sell those products under a voluntary moratorium, though the FDA has said cloned animals are scientifically identical to their natural counterparts.
But that conclusion hasn't convinced shoppers or meat and dairy producers who fear anxiety about cloned products could dampen sales. Dallas-based Dean Foods Co., which owns the Land O'Lakes and Horizon Organic brands, already said it will not sell milk from cloned cows. And a spokeswoman for meat producer Hormel Foods Corp. said yesterday it has no plans to sell meat from cloned animals.
A September 2006 poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 percent of Americans were uncomfortable with animal cloning. And research by the International Dairy Foods Association estimated the $20 billion dairy market could fall 15 percent if cloned milk is introduced.
In a move to head-off such a backlash, milk producers joined their peers in the meat and grocery industries to endorse a system to identify cloned animals.
"Obviously, there are some public concerns about allowing milk from cloned cattle into the supply chain, and that's why we're supporting the tracking of these animals," said Chris Galen, Vice President for the National Milk Producers Federation.
Under the plan, Viagen Inc. and Trans Ova Genetics — the two primary U.S. cloning companies — will attach an electronic identification tag to each cloned cow or pig sold. Buyers must make a financial deposit with the cloning company which will only be returned after they verify the death or sale of the animal to a food producer. These customers must sign a pledge to market the animal as a clone.
However, this has done little to quiet complaints from consumer advocates and lawmakers who say the American public is not prepared for clone encounters in their local grocery store.
"It is much too soon for this controversial technology to be unleashed in the marketplace, especially without requiring it to be labeled," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Food & Water Watch.
December 20, 2007