EU move on cloned food shunned

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- There is no good reason why the European Union shouldn't have labels indicating food came from cloned animals, a U.S. advocacy group complained.

European leaders turned down a chance to adopt a plan to label food that contains products from the offspring of cloned animals.

"Meat from the offspring of cloned animals could find its way onto the EU market, with no one being any the wiser, after member state representatives refused the Parliament's demand to label clone-derived products," the European Parliament said in a statement.

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of advocacy group Food and Water Europe, blamed politics for European leaders' decision to move forward with the labeling mechanism.

"European consumers reject cloning as cruel and unnecessary, yet the (European) Commission seems determined to ignore them and bow to pressure from U.S. exporters led by politicians with links to the biotech industry, which spent over half a billion dollars in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures over the past decade," she said in a statement.

Hauter said there are mechanisms used by some EU member states that make it possible to trace clones and their offspring.

"There is no good reason why EU shoppers shouldn't have a label to show them where cloning has been used," she added.