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The decision removes the last big U.S. regulatory hurdle to marketing products from cloned livestock, and puts the FDA in concert with recent safety assessments from European food regulators and several other nations.
“Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day,” said Stephen Sundloff, FDA’s food safety chief.
But the government has asked animal cloning companies to continue a voluntary moratorium on sales for a little longer - not for safety reasons, but marketing ones.
USDA Undersecretary Bruce Knight called it a transition period for “allowing the marketplace to adjust.” He wouldn’t say how long the moratorium should continue…
…FDA won’t require food makers to label if their products came from cloned animals, although companies could do so voluntarily if they knew the source. Last month, meat and dairy producers announced an industry system to track cloned livestock, with an electronic identification tag on each animal sold. Customers would sign a pledge to market the animal as a clone.
So, we have GM cloned animals set to go to market, no labeling required, and bills set to implement a tracking system for all livestock.
Tracking problem solved for the GM giants. You don’t have to go to a field and drag a cow back to the lab, or bring your equipment to the cow. If these bills pass, the animals will already be in a database, courtesy of Congress.
And just what does this mean to the small rancher?
(1988) The United States Patent and Trademark Office, in a new policy that could substantially change how lifestock and poultry are sold, has determined that companies holding patents on new animal forms have the authority to require farmers to pay royalties.
The royalties would be paid on the sales of patented animals and on generations of their offspring, meaning that farmers would have to pay patent holders a fee for adult animals and for generations of calves, colts, lambs, chicks, and piglets produced through the 17-year life of the patent. (New York Times)
Now let’s connect the dots. We have patents on GM animals, and most GM animals are clones. The FDA has approved both for our food supply, with no labeling required. We have, poised to be set in motion, a tracking system for all animals. Farmers have to pay royalties ”on the sales of patented animals and on generations of their offspring, meaning that farmers would have to pay patent holders a fee for adult animals and for generations of calves, colts, lambs, chicks, and piglets produced through the 17-year life of the patent.”
Isn’t this beginning to sound familiar? Does Percy Schmeiser ring a bell? Here is a possible scenario:
A GM bull gets out of a factory farm down the road and mates with a regular cow on a neighbor’s ranch. Since the neighbor is required to report and trace every animal’s movements, he must account for the new calf or face penalties. The factory farm has reported that the bull has gotten out, and was recovered at the neighbor’s ranch. The neighbor does not have a bull, so it is logical to assume that this new calf is a product of the GM bull and his cow. If testing shows that the calf is GM, just like Percy Schmeiser, the neighbor is now responsible for a patent holder’s fee for that animal and any offspring it may have.
© Barbara H. Peterson
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