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© Suzanne Plunkett, ReutersDemonstrators wearing masks depicting Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, protest against cloning animals for food, in London August 6, 2010. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday said he doesn’t know whether cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday said he doesn't know whether cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply.

But Tom Vilsack, in Ottawa to talk trade with food exporters and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, emphasized that if they have, the animals are safe to eat.

"I can't say today that I can answer your question in an affirmative or negative way. I don't know. What I do know is that we know all the research, all of the review of this is suggested that this is safe," Vilsack told reporters, pointing to an assessment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.


Comment: Vilsack mentions twice in the statements above that cloned animals are safe to eat, copying word for word the FDA statement in January 2008:

FDA to clear cloned livestock for consumers
The U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is expected to declare as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is safe to eat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday...

The decision would come after more than six years of wrestling with the question and would be a milestone for a small cadre of biotech companies that want to make a business out of producing cloned farm animals.
Vilsack and the FDA keep claiming the safety of cloned meat, but do not provide any data to support such claims.

Vislack said that because science is often "ahead of the regulatory process and ahead of the ethics discussion," the U.S. will continue their "moratorium" on not allowing the sale of meat from cloned animals until the products are widely accepted as safe.


Comment: Vilsack, the FDA and U.S officials are obviously big supporters of the biotech industry and just keep saying cloned meat 'is safe' in hopes consumers will believe the lie:

Back in 2006 U.S. officials were saying cloned meat is 'safe to eat':

Meat, milk from cloned animals safe to eat, U.S. officials say
Scientists with the FDA suggest in the Jan. 1 issue of Theriogenology that food from cloned animals does not need to be specially labeled.

"Meat and milk from clones and their progeny is as safe to eat as corresponding products derived from animals produced using contemporary agricultural practices," wrote FDA scientists Larisa Rudenko and John C. Matheson.
Considering Vilsack's Another Shill for Monsanto: Tom Vilsack's appointment as Secretary of Agriculture is anyone surprised that Vilsack says repeatedly that biotech meat and crops are safe?
"Vilsack's nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration," said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association.
To learn more about Vilsack receiving moans, groans, hisses, and even boos, from a group of informed scientists and specialists on the various risks of biotechnology read the following:

Vilsack Mistakenly Pitched "GMOs-Feed-The-World" to an Audience of Experts

Vilsack's comments come a week after the U.K. Food Standards Agency told consumers in that country that descendants of a clone made their way into the local food supply. The cattle were the offspring of a cloned cow in the U.S. and were shipped to the U.K. as embryos.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is investigating a claim that embryos from a cow bred from a cloned parent animal in Britain have been sold to breeders in Canada.

A spokesman for Ritz said there are no products derived from cloned animals approved for sale in Canada, and CFIA would inform the minister if the agency found evidence that food regulations had been violated.

"To date, this has not happened," said Matthew Wolf.

Two years ago, the U.S. FDA concluded that cloned pigs, goats and cattle were safe to eat, as were their progeny. However, the European Parliament recently moved to ban the sale of meat or dairy from cloned animals and their offspring.

In Canada, the departments of agriculture, health and environment, along with CFIA, produced a draft assessment of the safety of cloned animals in August 2008, but it is still in the review stage.

Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, says "this whole issue of genetically-engineered animals is huge," but the government appears unperturbed by the sector's growth and the potential for entering the food chain.

"If experimental, non-regulated, genetically-engineered animals or crops get into the food system, they don't necessarily care unless the public makes it an issue. That's our experience," said Sharratt.