Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Clone Meat and Milk "OK"; No Need to Label:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_12_24-2006_12_30.shtml#1167345636
As anticipated, a [1]draft ruling from the Food and Drug
Administration concludes the meat and dairy products from cloned
animals are safe for human consumption. As the Associated Press
[2]reports
The government believes "meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat
clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," said
Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary
Medicine. Meat and milk from the offspring of clones is also safe,
the agency concluded.
Given the FDA's conclusion, there is no legal basis to require the
labeling of products from cloned animals, but this does not mean we
won't soon see "clone-free" labels.
If consumers truly care about whether the milk or meat they consume
was produced, producers will have an incentive to respond by offering
"clone-free" meat and dairy products, and labeling them accordingly.
At least one producer, Ben & Jerry's, plans to do just that. The
Vermont ice-cream makers already advertise that they do not use milk
from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Even
though the use of rBGH has no effect on the milk cows produce, this
may influence some consumers (though I suspect the high-milk-fat
content is the real basis for Ben & Jerry's' popularity).
The legal standard the FDA uses in determining whether it has the
authority to mandate labels is the right one, in my view. If the use
of a biotech production method, whether the application of an
engineered hormone or the cloning of animal stock, does not result in
a difference in the product itself, there is no reasonable basis for
mandating that the product be labeled, irrespective of consumer
preferences. The range of production methods that are of potential
interest to consumers is limitless. In these contexts, what
information consumers want should be revealed through the interplay of
consumer and producer behavior in the marketplace. In the end, perhaps
most clone-derived products will be labeled. If so, it should be due
to consumer demand, not government mandate.
References
1.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122800529.html
2.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122800552.html
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