SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Families and friends who share eggnog, lamb curry or beef stew this winter may not know whether the main ingredients came from cloned animals, after the governor vetoed a San Francisco lawmaker’s labeling bill.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is poised to end a voluntary moratorium on the sale of dairy and meat from cloned cattle, goats, pigs and sheep, after it ruled last year that the food is safe for humans. The agency published a health risk assessment in December that noted high death rates among cloned animals and host mothers, partly because of incidents of ‘large animal syndrome’ in cloned cattle and sheep.

A federal bill to require labels on food from cloned animals and their descendents has been stalled in Democratic-controlled congressional committees since February. A similar bill by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, passed the Legislature last month, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently refused to sign it.

To clone an animal, scientists move its genetic material into excavated donor embryos, which are planted in host mothers to grow as genetic doppelgängers of the prized beast. A Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology survey last year found that two-thirds of Americans are “uncomfortable” with the technology.

Migden said labels on cloned food would let consumers know and choose what they put on the dinner table, but Schwarzenegger told lawmakers in a veto statement that Migden’s proposed rules “could be unworkable, costly and unenforceable,” and might violate federal law.

About a dozen agricultural and retail groups opposed Migden’s bill. California Farm Bureau lobbyist Noelle Cremers said cloning lets livestock producers “more quickly respond to consumer demand” by replicating valued animals, and that it would be “next to impossible” to segregate food, for labeling purposes, from cloned animals and their descendents.

Labels for cloned food would mislead consumers, which would violate federal law, said Cremers, because there’s “absolutely no difference” between food from cloned and non-cloned animals.

But food-safety and animal-welfare groups criticized Schwarzenegger’s decision. “The animals are injected with large amounts of hormones — and that’s a food safety issue,” said Rebecca Spector, the San Francisco-based West Coast director of The Center for Food Safety.

The nonprofit noted in a report that the federal government’s risk assessment relied heavily on studies that weren’t reviewed by other scientists. “We feel very strongly,” Spector said, “that there hasn’t been adequate testing.”

UC Davis biotechnologist Alison Van Eenennaam said overgrown young are a side effect of in vitro fertilization, and that they’re usually delivered safely by Caesarean section. “Most of these companies have got a few vets on staff,” she said. “It’s not like it’s Joe Blow out in the field hoping for the best.”

jupton@examiner.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

4:51 PM MST on Fri., Feb. 22, 2008 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
I think scientist with all these ideas are going to far with all this cloning and genetical modified foods or mediine!!!! STOP IT!! STOP THE RESEARCHIN AND STUFF

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8:51 AM MST on Thu., Jan. 24, 2008 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
Thats nasty! They shouldnt even be eatting offspring of cloned animals. and for those of you who think it's cool ... shame on you! Danielle S. Norman Ok

14 agree | 9 disagree
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9:18 AM MST on Wed., Jan. 23, 2008 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
i dont care if you would eat it or not but atleast lable the non cloned meat for those of us who eat the REAL stuff! geeze this shouldnt even be happening!

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11:51 AM MST on Mon., Jan. 21, 2008 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
There hasn't been nearly enough time to see what side effects could come from cloned meat/dairy consumption. Have we not seen Jurassic Park? They nabbed the technology and were so quick to package and sell their product that they aren't stopping to consider our long-term safety. It's my right as a consumer to know exactly what I'm eating and to heck with the seller's profits...if you want my business, keep the farm 100% natural.

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11:00 PM MST on Sun., Nov. 25, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
Whether cloning is safe or not, i want to know what i am eating and i think that it is unamerican to hide the facts of what we are eating. It is the same as putting the nutritional facts on the back label. I want to know and I think that it is our right as americans to know exactly what were eating without censorship from the government.

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1:43 PM MST on Thu., Nov. 8, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

F. Anne Fesler M.D. said:
I would like to hear all follow-up on this article. I am prepared to give up eating these meats. As far as I am concerned, bioengineering is an abomination against nature. And I am a retired physician.

64 agree | 67 disagree
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8:34 AM MST on Mon., Nov. 5, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
why not clone meat? We eat gene modified plants all the time. It least the genes from the meat come from another animal.

78 agree | 76 disagree
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10:38 PM MST on Tue., Oct. 30, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

dan ellihseoh said:
what is the difference between the natural means of growing the animals using the natural method (sexual means) and cloning technique?why they cloned the animals?if the natural laws for every beings be replaced by unnatural means i think this will produce imbalance to the naturally developed humans(health-physically and mentally)

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7:27 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

disappointed said:
Ugh... I wrote to the FDA and requested that they label cloned meat and I did not receive a reply (go figure). It's a good thing I'm a vegetarian, now I am working to go vegan. The food industry in America disgusts me.

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7:24 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
Why don't "they" label the non-cloned items instead of expecting "them" to label the cloned? God help us!

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6:52 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
This is a sick world we're living in, and it's not going to get any better than this.

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5:49 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

DarkestKnight said:
The argument meat producers can't keep track of cloned v. non-cloned meat is untrue and without merit. Gerber baby foods tracks the source of every ingredient in a jar of baby food...all the way back to which field it was grown in and when. If they can do that, then the much simpler task of labeling cloned v. non-cloned is trivial.

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5:48 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
Someone needs to be shot for letting this happen. Only- you will all be so ignorant- you won't believe that until it is too late for it to matter. When it comes to science, men are morons that estimate their prowess using the flawed ruler of their own limited ape-like imagination- when you are that dumb- ANYTHING seems possible- what could go wrong?? We will find out what can go wrong in a way that it will be impossible to be undone.

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8:52 AM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007 re: "Cloned meat, dairy make way to the table"

Examiner Reader said:
Gross - time to avoid buying US meat! One more reason to buy local and organic. Delores Broten, Comox BC

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