Brussels, 28/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The organisation Eurogroup for Animals has called on the people of Europe, their elected representatives, political decision-makers and EU companies, on the grounds of animal welfare, to join the Clone-free Food campaign and to sign a statement calling for as speedy as possible an end to the use of cloning for food production in Europe.
This technique may not be permitted in Europe but the failure of the conciliation procedure between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the so-called Novel Food draft revised regulation means that, without traceability, there is nothing to prevent food from cloned animals being imported into the EU (see EUROPE 10376).
MEP Kartika Liotard (GUE/NGL, Netherlands), rapporteur on the Novel Foods directive review, was the first to sign the statement. She said: “It is a disgrace that European consumers without knowing and against their will are being served food produced as a result of cloning although 77% of them refuse to accept it according to the Eurobarometer survey. The Commission must now act and respect the wishes of Europe's citizens and defend the welfare of Europe's animals”. She called on “as many people and organisations as possible to sign this declaration and share the information on cloning with their family, friends and colleagues.”
Scientists agree that the health and welfare of a significant proportion of cloned animals is seriously affected and mortality is considerably higher than with sexually reproduced animals Eurogroup for Animals points out. The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), asked by the Commission for its views on the ethics of cloning animals for food, delivered an unfavourable opinion in January 2008. Given the level of suffering and the health problems faced by cloned animals, the EGE doubted that cloning animals for the purpose of producing food could be ethically justified and did not, at this stage, see any convincing arguments that could justify food production from cloned animals or their offspring.
Eurogroup for Animals pointed out that, according to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in July 2008 on a random sample of 25,000 persons from across all 27 member states, 58% of European citizens were against animal cloning for food production. Those that believed that cloning animals for food production ran the risk of treating animals as commodities numbered 69% and 83% said that, if food from cloned animals became available in the shops, it should be clearly labelled.
Eurogroup for Animals represents animal welfare organisations in all EU member states. The declaration is available to sign online at http://www.conefreefood.eu (A.N./transl.rt)