Experimenting with the Experimenters - Crowdsourcing opinions on Cloned Meat
by angelique van engelen
Europeans are studying whether they will allow cloned meat to enter the food cycle unlabelled. They are following in the footsteps of the US Food and Drug Administration, which is intent on endorsing this. Japanese consumers are already eating meat from cloned animals. Officials both from the EU and the US are up against consumer resistance however. The FDA in the US has been preparing the public for its decision. At the same time it is putting pressure on the EU to follow suit, because they see the EU market as a potentially lucrative market.
But do we want this? Consumer studies indicate that US consumers are very much against. What are the implications and why is the issue so under reported in the media? I don't buy the message 'it's too early on in the regulatory process'.
So how does an editor who’s not averse to crowd sourcing go about incorporating the masses in this issue?
I have started to look into it and written up my findings as well as my experiences in crowdsourcing this issue, which you can find here.
-CeBRA, the organisation commissioned a few years ago by the European Commission to make a start with reviewing cloned meat, states officially that there will be tensions in international trade if the EU does not decide to condone cloning.
-CeBRA also states officially that national consumer reactions will likely lead to tensions too.
-A scientist says some in the industry are convinced that the EU is planning to go the 'substantial equivalence' route regardless of what the reality is.
-In the UK, there’s clearly some spin doctoring of the agenda aiming to ‘calm’ fears. This might already be evidence that this country/leading EU officials are putting their weight behind the introduction of farm animal cloning.
-The EU’s EFSA has been given a time table that indicates the EC wants to speed ahead the legislative process which is clearly due to US developments.
-In the US, cloning is taking place in several farms and top of the rancge cattle is remarkably cheaper.
-CeBRA states that Farmers have rejected the plans and in the report’s next line, attention is drawn to the US FDA ‘favorable’ approach.
If you want to voice your -consumer- reaction to this, please do so.
- Do you endorse cloning for commercial purposes?
- What is your advice regarding labeling?
- What level of consumer awareness should there be about this issue, according to you?
You can post on this site or send me an email at info at reportwitters dot com. Or post a comment on the blog article. I will report back progress here.
FIRST PROGRESS:
Information about the outside advisors to the EU
When the issue of cloned meat first hit the limelight as ‘warranting’ regulatory attention with the birth of Dundee Paradise, officials’ first reactions were that it wouldn’t come this far and they simply reiterated the current ban on (commercially sold) cloned meat. Yet with the passage of time this might very well turn out to be a drive to regulate the anticipation of real commercial cloning practices. Countries like Australia where cloning is allowed, show that companies are keen to buy a cloning license. US company ViaGen, a commercial cloning outfit which is nearly profitable, says the prospects for achieving cost savings by commercially cloned meat are very good.
Below a list of details of the members that make up the committee of experts advising the European food watchdog EFSA on the safety of cloned meat, plus their disclosures of personal interests. The committee is scheduled to hand in its report before November this year. I have emailed them, requesting if I could profile them in this article.
These are some of the experts:
-The Italian professor Giuliano D’agnolo (giuliano.dagnolo@iss.it), who ticked the box GMO food and commented he’s involved in ‘the deliberate release of GMO crops’. Reading up on him on the web, you get the impression he will find cloned meat very safe.
- András Dinnyés, a Hungarian Wellcome Trust sponsored mouse and rat cloning expert. Email: dinnyes@abc.hu. WEB http://www.mbk.hu/admin/webadmin/dinnyes/dacvenglish.htm. This man is also likely an enthusiast of cloning.
-The International Embryo Transfer Society. website: http://www.iets.org/ Represented by Larisa Rudenko. She is a member of the Health and Safety Advisory Committee of IETS. Was on the US FDA Centre for Veterinary Medicine / government/ animal biotechnology.
- BIOprotein Technologies from France, which creates hyper powerful vaccines (rotavirus) from transgenic Rabbit’s milk. Website: http://www.bioprotein.com/gb/open.htm#Séquence_1 This is a medical expert likely.
- Assured Food Standards UK, the organisation behind the RedTractor food label, is also on the committee. It is represented by David Morton, who is also a member of the Farm animal Welfare Council. These people might be in favor of labeling. Their website reads that chicken meat is from chickens that were fed unpolluted food.
The French INRA (national institute for agricultural research) is represented by Pierre Le Neindre. Email: tours.presidence@tours.inra.fr. He ticked his interests as agricultural industry, environment and human nutrition; the focus areas of INRA. Has advised the French gov on animal welfare and an experiments. http://www.international.inra.fr/
| Created: |
September 03, 2007 09:20 GMT |
| Completed: |
September 04, 2007 17:35 GMT |
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