Heather from the Center for Food Safety has alerted us that dairy-state senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) introduced legislation yesterday seeking to ban, without exception, milk, meat or other food products from clones — or their offspring — from getting the green seal of approval from the USDA’s organic program.
While the National Organic Program had announced on Jan. 31 that clones were definitely not eligible under the existing definitions, it had said further discussion would be necessary to determine whether the progeny of cloned animals would be OK. Since the cloning process is very expensive, it is most likely to be used to recreate and breed animals with prized characteristics.
The text of the bill is not yet published and has not been assigned a bill number. The Center for Food Safety has more about it, and the whole discussion, over at its excellent blog Food Fight!.
Photo from Wednesday’s protest used with permission from Food Fight.
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