Alarm over new food technologies is increasing in the EU as the European Parliament asked for a ban against the sale of foods from cloned animals and their offspring last Wednesday.
Despite the growing concern over GMO-food, Corinne Lepage, a French member of the European Parliament, concedes that no safety concerns have been identified so far with meat produced from cloned animals, but explains that this technique raises serious issues about animal welfare, reduction of biodiversity, as well as ethical concerns.
A stumped Dr. Ross responds, What does cloning have to do with animal welfare or reductions in biodiversity? This is just code for I have no idea what I m talking about, but I know that I am afraid of biotechnology.
Since biotechnology has been a prodigious asset for agriculture for the last 15 years with no single adverse effect from genetically modified food on record, Dr. Ross believes that the call for the EU ban is due to unscientific, superstitious fear-mongering in Europe against so called Franken-food, which is completely baseless and perhaps only a disguise for the real problem economic trade protection.
