Animal cloning for food 'unjustified', say EU citizens 

The findings come from a Eurobarometer Flash survey carried out by the EU executive between 3 and 7 July 2008 on 25,000 randomly selected citizens aged over 15 years in the 27 EU member states. 

According to the survey, 58% of EU citizens believe that such cloning for food production "should never be justified," with only 9% of respondents saying they could accept it. 

What's more, 61% of respondents believe animal cloning to be "morally wrong", while another 84% caution that the "long-term effects of animal cloning on nature were unknown". 

On top of this, 38% of the respondents stressed that no potential health or economic benefits could ever justify breeding cloned animals for food production. 

The results of the Eurobarometer appear to confirm calls last month by the European Parliament and Eurogroup for Animals asking the Commission to submit proposals prohibiting the use of cloned animals in food products. 

"The EU should ban animal cloning for food until scientists can confirm conclusively that it is safe for human health," said Neil Parrish MEP, Conservative chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee. 

Earlier this year, the Commission's ethical advisory group also found no argument to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring (EurActiv 18/01/08), while the EU's Food Safety Authority (EFSA) strongly underlined the lack of scientific data on the subject and the repercussions that cloning had on animal health and welfare (EurActiv 25/07/08). 

Nevertheless, citizens appeared more open to cloning to preserve rare breeds or to improve the robustness of animals against diseases. Also, 31% of respondents said that animal cloning might help to solve the global food problems. 

But this would depend on whether people would actually eat the products. Indeed, the survey shows that a majority of EU citizens find it unlikely that they would ever buy meat or milk from cloned animals (63%), even if a trusted source stated that such products were safe to eat. 

All in all, citizens did not think that consumers or farmers would benefit much from animal cloning for food production, with the food industry emerging as the sector perceived to benefit most if the practice was allowed: 86% of respondents expected this to be the case.