Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-08-Speech-3-436"
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"en.20100908.19.3-436"2
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"Mr President, I think it is important – as others have said and indeed the Commissioner also said in his contribution – that there is no risk at all to human health from produce from the offspring of cloned animals. I stress there the word ‘offspring’ of cloned animals, rather than the particular issue of cloned animals themselves, because these are two separate issues.
I wanted to raise here today – as I did with you yesterday, Commissioner, when we met informally – the position that the Innes family in Scotland found themselves in earlier on this summer. They are a long-standing farming family in Scotland who are very dynamic, go-ahead farmers and have always sought to use the best genetics from around the world. They bought a bull bred in the United States, which turned out to have a clone in its parentage. They asked all the right questions at the time about the use of the animal and whether it could be used on the farm. They did not understand that there was any issue with it because it was an offspring of a cloned animal, rather than a cloned animal itself. They now have 90 females bred from that particular bull on farm, and these are worth somewhere in the region of £200 000.
It was only when they started to consider selling the milk from these animals as they became old enough to produce that they discovered there was a problem. The United Kingdom’s interpretation of the current regulations is that not only the produce from the cloned animal, but the produce from the offspring, is not allowed into the UK food chain. That is an interpretation that was put in place by the Food Standards Agency. That has meant that these animals are worthless, except of course if you move them to another Member State where there is a different interpretation regarding these animals and where milk from these animals would be allowed to enter the food chain, or indeed if you sold them back to the USA.
That is the problem that we have in terms of lack of consistency across Member States. I think it is in the interests of both consumers and farmers that we get some certainty about this. In terms of Parliament's position, I think that we have gone too far in saying that the meat and milk and products from the offspring of cloned animals should be banned from the system. I think that is wrong and we need to see movement on that. It seems to me that we have to accept that all the scientific evidence suggests there is no difference between these animals which are offspring and any other animals, and they should be allowed into the food chain.
I hope that at some stage over the coming months, we can see some compromise and introduce certainty that reassures both consumers and farmers on what is a very sensitive and emotional issue."@en1
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