Scientists weigh in on livestock cloning

SAVOY, Ill. – More than 200 scientists have signed a public statement in support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s draft risk assessment on the safety of food from cloned animals and their conventionally-bred offspring.
Full text. The sign-on letter was distributed by the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). The full text and list of signers can be found at www.fass.org/DefendScience.
“FASS is proud to give scientists an opportunity to congratulate the U.S. FDA on a thorough and excellent job,” said Jerome Baker, CEO of FASS. “This is one of the most rigorous food safety reviews ever conducted. The American people should be absolutely confident in the FDA’s good work.”
What it says. The document states that, “We support and agree with the FDA’s conclusion as stated in the science-based draft risk assessment that edible products from healthy cloned animals and progeny of cloned animals pose no additional food consumption risks relative to corresponding products from other animals.”
It is signed by some of the world’s leading researchers. Signers include Terry Etherton, who was on the National Academy of Sciences panel that evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, as well as one of the “fathers” of Dolly the Sheep – Ian Wilmut.
Newspaper ad. In addition to coordinating the sign-on letter, FASS also ran an advertisement in the May 2 Washington Post.
In that ad, Etherton says, “The scientific evidence is absolutely, robustly clear. There is no food safety risk from the meat or milk from clones, or from their conventionally bred offspring.”