EU Commissioner for Trade: Products from offspring of cloned animals already on the market
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Munich, Bruxelles
A non-public EU Commission paper confirms that food from offsprings of cloned animals are already on the European market. The animals get into the market via the import of breeding material from the US. The EU Trade Commission argues that in future too these products should not be regulated, labelled or controlled for unexpected risks, because so far no systems have been established for registering the animals in exporting countries such as the US.
Plans for India’s first genetically engineered crop for human consumption have triggered a safety report that reveals signs of food toxicity. According to this study prepared independently from industry, there are serious indications that the consumption of this genetically engineered (Bt) eggplant (also called brinjal in India) can cause inflammation, reproductive disorders and liver damage.
Munich, 8. January 2011. About 5000 people have already signed the petition “Call to protect the environment from synthetic organisms”. The Testbiotech initiative began in June 2010 and is supported by eight other institutions. It is calling for strict legal regulations to protect the environment from synthetic organisms, for permanent control of laboratories and a moratorium on public funding for synthetic biology. It is probably the first time that signatures on this issue have been collected nationally and internationally. Synthetic biology is a newly developed technology enabling the creation of new artificial organisms. Possible applications go far beyond current genetic engineering procedures.
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