WASHINGTON — A number of consumer groups and natural food companies have expressed dismay at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision this week to declare that meat and milk sourced from cloned animals and their offspring are safe for human consumption. In a statement released yesterday, Robynn Shrader, chief executive officer of the National Cooperative Grocer’s Association, said, “We feel this ruling is geared toward the interests of the industrial food manufacturers and marketers of genetically modified organisms, not grocery shoppers or responsible food retailers.” Similarly, George Siemon, CEO for Organic Valley, the nation’s largest cooperative of organic family farms, said that the decision “has been made with haste and has not been made with the interests of the animals, consumers or farmers in mind,” declaring that the company’s milk and meat brands “will never allow the use of cloned animals on our farms and in our products.” Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology director for Washington-based Center For Science in the Public Interest, noted that it was not the FDA’s job to address objections to cloned animals on grounds other than their safety, but said that “Congress should hold hearings on the animal-welfare, ethical and environmental implications of cloning. If companies begin using clones to breed food animals, they need to explain why.”
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