Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Moreover, in addition to suggesting that sufficient data existed for
cattle, swine and goats to indicate that products from clones would
be safe to eat, the FDA also determined that no further regulatory
framework would be necessary for cloned animals (FDA, 2008).
Existing regulations governing food safety were deemed to be good
enough to cover clone-derived materials too (FDA, 2008).
In Europe though, the situation has been reversed. Members of the
European Parliament have been trying to ban cloned animals and their
derivatives from entering the food chain since mid-2010 (Casassus,
2011). The European Council, however, wants only cloned animals to
be banned and not the sexually produced offspring of clones (Casassus,
2011). Negotiations between the European Parliament and the
European Council broke down in early 2011 (Casassus, 2011). There
has been some suggestion, however, that products derived from clones
have already entered into the European food supply chain, with
producers importing cloned embryos from the US (Miller, 2010).
Whether or not the European Parliament persists in attempting to ban
animal clones and their derivatives remains to be seen. At this point in
time, the existing 1997 regulations on novel foods remain in place.
A 'novel food' under the EU regulations is any food or food product
not customarily used for human consumption to a significant degree
prior to the enactment of the legislation (Regulation EC 258/97).
More controversially, stem cell technologies are also argued to
have the potential to overcome some of the environmental problems
associated with current agricultural practices (
http://invitromeat.org
).
For example, the In Vitro Meat Consortium, established in Norway
in 2007, argues that it is theoretically possible to create bioreactors
in which meat could be grown
from stem cells harvested from adult
animals (
http://invitromeat.org
). Furthermore, they suggest that such
a method of meat production would obviate the need for the
utilization of large land masses in the production of food for the
growing global population (
http://invitromeat.org
). Other benefits of
developing
in vitro
meat over traditionally farmed meat include less
harm to animals overall, prompting animal rights organization PETA
to offer a US$1 million prize to the first person or team to develop an
in vitro
meat product that was indistinguishable from existing meat
products and also commercially sustainable (Siegelbaum, 2008).
