Meat and Milk from Clones are Safe, FDA says

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked the cloning companies to continue the freeze on selling cloned animals while it looks into the impact the FDA's safety ruling could have on trade and consumer opinion.

The freeze - which extends only to cloned animals, not their progeny - could last months, officials said, declining to be give specific timelines.

''This isn't being done because of any questions about safety. ... Nor is it because there's need to gather more data,'' said Jim Greenwood, head of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. ''It's really to create a transition period during which the public, the consumer, can better understand the science; understand that it's not science fiction.''

Regulators and the cloning industry also underscored Tuesday that there are only about 600 cloned animals in the United States and that most will be used for breeding. The cost of a cloned animal - between $15,000 and $20,000 - will preclude most farmers from using the technology.

''Few clones will enter the marketplace,'' said Bruce Knight, of the USDA's marketing and regulatory programs division.

But that doesn't assuage consumer advocates.

''There isn't enough information out there to know what happens when the progeny from these cloned animals are consumed, or when they get a little long in the tooth,'' said Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union. ''At the very least we have a right to know what's on our shelves.''

The agency does not plan to require labels on products from clones, though the dairy industry and some beef producers are considering imposing their own labeling requirements.

''The FDA may say it's not required,'' said John Kleiboeker, of the Missouri Beef Industry Council. ''But consumers may want labels, so discerning marketers will do it.''

The agency's decision has producers, ranchers and farmers concerned about the hit their products could take in the marketplace. One study by the dairy industry shows it expects sales to drop 15 percent if labeling requirements don't move forward.

''We're pretty confident that our customers would not want anything to do with cloned animals, irrespective of what the studies say,'' said Joe Oberweis, of Oberweis Dairy in North Aurora, Ill. ''If they say they're perfectly safe, they could be wrong. Taking milk from cloned cows is out of the question for us.''

These concerns come as more consumers have been veering toward organic products. (A USDA organic label prohibits cloned animals.)

''It's almost like a desire to go back to basics, or back to whole, genuine food,'' said Patricia Whisnant, owner of American Grass Fed Beef, in Doniphan, Mo., and president of the American Grass Fed Association, whose members won't accept cloned animals. ''Cloning is the antithesis of that.''

Currently between 95 and 99 percent of clones don't live past gestation or their first year of life, prompting concerns about animal welfare, as well as human safety.

''They don't understand why the cloning process doesn't work well,'' said Jaydee Hanson, of the Center for Food Safety, referring to the failure rate. ''And they allege the defects don't get handed down generation to generation, but ... [the FDA] has papers that demonstrate that happens.''

Some scientists and the biotech industry stress that defects don't get passed down.

''I'm not aware of health problems from the progeny of cloned animals,'' said Randall Prather, professor of reproductive biotechnology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. ''Even if you have cloned animals that may not be perfectly normal, I haven't seen evidence that the offspring have any abnormalities.''

Prather also stressed that abnormal or diseased animals wouldn't enter the marketplace. ''Those that don't make it, don't enter the food chain,'' he said.

The industry announced last year that it would start a system to track cloned animals. The system would include identifying animals with a radio frequency, establishing a national database and requiring farmers to pay a deposit that they would get back at the end of the animal's life.

But that doesn't satisfy consumer advocates.

''They're just tracking the animal,'' said Hanson. ''Not the product.''