Brussels, 19/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing a moratorium on the technique of cloning, as well as a ban on the marketing of animal products such as meat and milk that come directly from cloned animals. On Wednesday 18 December, it therefore tabled two proposals for a directive on animal cloning for food farming purposes. If the proposals are followed through, the EU will not authorise the practice of cloning for farming on its territory and it will ban the import of cloned embryos and cloned animals for such purposes as long as cloning causes concern from an animal welfare and ethical point of view. In some cases, however, the cloning of animals may be practised for research purposes, the conservation of rare species and threatened species, and the production of medicines and medical devices.
According to Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, these proposals, which were presented at the same time as a proposal to review the novel food regulation (see other article in this bulletin) aim to “provide, amongst other things, legal certainty on these emotive issues” and to ensure that “measures on animal cloning provide a clear EU policy that respond to animal welfare concerns as well as consumer perceptions on food from animal clones in a realistic and workable way”. But the Commission does not propose any labelling provision for food produced from the offspring of cloned animals - only the progeny of cloned animals can be exported to the EU - a Parliament requirement which, in 2011, derailed the interinstitutional talks on this issue. Thus, consumers who are reticent about the idea of eating food from cloned animals or from cloned progeny could consume such food without knowing it.
When quizzed by the press on this matter, Tonio Borg said: “The Commission believes that we do not have enough time in which to label fresh beef meat from the descendants of cloned animals. A prior analysis is needed. The Commission calls for a feasibility study to be carried out. The co-legislators (Parliament and Council) may take a stance to say whether they want labelling for the descendants of cloned animals” (our translation throughout). However, how can one ensure traceability once the products are imported? “The ban is on the animals themselves. The animals' descendants may be imported, because, from the scientific point of view, one cannot tell the difference between a cloned animal and its descendant”, the commissioner said, referring to the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA, 2008 opinion, confirmed in 2009, 2010 and 2012).
The proposal is insufficient. Sophie Auconie, who is Parliament rapporteur on the labelling of beef meat and the electronic identification of cattle, is delighted that the Commission is finally taking the question of animal cloning for food purposes seriously. Nonetheless, she finds the proposal insufficient. “Given the cost of the cloning technique, it is not very likely that cloned animals will themselves be put on the market for food. The problem is also, and above all, that of the descendants of cloned animals. The Commission's proposal is therefore insufficient. It should at all cost be completed by the co-legislators to deal with the question of regulations to frame the trade in the descendants of cloned animals. Every citizen must be entitled to have clear information on the labels, information that will make it possible to make an enlightened choice”.
According to the European Consumers' Bureau (BEUC), the Commission's proposals will not make more information available to consumers given that the food from the offspring of cloned animals does not appear in the text.
Monique Goyens, BEUC General Director, comments: “These measures are unfortunately a near duplicate of previous efforts which failed three years ago, which leaves us at a standstill. The Commission had plenty of time to come up with a more ambitious proposal”. If Europe intends to open the door to meat from the progeny of cloned animals, then it could at least have given consumers the possibility to choose what they eat from the labels, she said. She argued that 83% of consumers have stated their reluctance by saying “no” to steaks and milk from cloned animals. If consumers are against such farming, then why, she asked, is the debate still going on?
Today, cloning is not used for the production of foodstuffs in the EU but imports, mainly meat from the United States, Argentina and Brazil, may come from cloned animals. Without labelling, European consumers cannot know how their Argentine or American beef is produced, given that traceability is not in force in those countries for cloned animals and the young of cloned animals. (AN/transl.jl)