Food & Water Watch

Tell Congress to track cloned animals.

Unless USDA creates a DNA-based tracking system, cloned animals will be invisible to food companies and will inevitably end up in the food supply. Many food companies have pledged to avoid cloned animals in their supply chains – but without a national tracking system it is hard for them to verify this pledge. Cloned animals and their offspring cannot be certified organic, but if we don’t know where the cloned animals end up, this rule won’t help much either.

Can you tell Congress to establish a national DNA-based tracking system for cloned animals and their offspring before these products end up in our food supply?

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September 09, 2010

Subject:

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing to urge you to establish a DNA-based tracking system for cloned animals and their offspring. Many Americans object to animal cloning on moral or ethical grounds and are also concerned about unknown food safety risks and increased animal welfare problems. But I won’t have any choice about whether or not to avoid cloned foods unless an adequate system exists to track cloned animals and their offspring. Without a DNA-based tracking system, cloned animals will be invisible to food companies and will inevitably end up in the food supply.

Food companies that have pledged to avoid cloned animals in their supply chains can only do so with a national tracking system. Certified organic products, which cannot come from clones or their offspring, will not offer much protection to consumers without tracking.

The system proposed by the cloning companies stops at the slaughterhouse door and only covers clones, not their offspring.  In order to track the long-term health impacts on both cloned animals and their offspring, and the quality and safety of the meat and milk from these animals, a tracking system must be in place.

Cloning companies and breeders of cloned animals should be required to deposit samples of the DNA of clones and their offspring with the US Department of Agriculture before any products from these animals reach the market.  I urge Congress to put such a tracking system in place.

Sincerely,

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