States Move to Label Cloned Food

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"I'm not saying that cloned food is dangerous, but if the American public doesn't want to consume it on moral or religious grounds, they should have the choice," says California Senator Carole Migden (D), who has reintroduced a bill that required labels on cloned food products. Last year, the bill was passed by both the California Senate and House, but was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The governor said the bill would require tracking and labeling that could be "unworkable, costly, and unenforceable."

Costly and Unenforceable

Indeed, for those reasons the state bills have a tough road ahead. The biggest problem is that there is no way of testing to know whether the animal is a clone. "Clones are identical to the animals they came from, and there's no way to scientifically tell them apart," says animal biotechnology specialist Alison Van Eenennaam at the University of California, Davis. "So such labeling is not enforceable."

Besides, as Schwarzenegger pointed out, labeling would be costly, even if the cloned animals are tracked as promised by ViaGen, a biotech company that produces cloned cattle, pigs, and other animals in its labs. Each state that enacts such a law will have to develop two separate systems to transport milk and meat, one from regular animals and one from clones. Already, a similar process is in place in the organic food industry, where the two streams of production do not mix. In fact, many experts suggest that consumers who want to avoid eating food from cloned animals can just buy organic food. Under Agriculture Dept. requirements, organic foods must be grown or raised under specific conditions, which would disqualify cloned animals. "The organic industry has already said that they won't have clones in their food stream, and they have ruled that they won't allow cloned animals to enter their food chain," says Van Eenennaam.

Food companies are extremely sensitive to the debate. Several of them, including retail chain Whole Foods Market (WFMI), milk producer Dean Foods (DF), and ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's (UN), have said they won't accept products from cloned animals. But if food from clones isn't labeled, companies may find it difficult to live up to that pledge. Besides, most food manufacturers and retailers are part of industry trade groups like the Food Marketing Institute or the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., which resist labeling mandates. The biotech and meat industries also will fight these bills aggressively.

Federal Labeling Bill

Of course, new state laws won't be needed if federal lawmakers decide to revive the Cloned Food Labeling Act that is languishing in the Senate. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) recently went to the Senate floor and in an impassioned speech urged her colleagues to pass the bill, which she originally introduced in January, 2007. The act would require the FDA and the Agriculture Dept. to mandate that all food that comes from cloned animals carry the following wording: "This product is from a cloned animal or its progeny."

Senator Mikulski says: "Labeling does two things. It gives consumers the right to know and allows scientists to monitor."

Gogoi is a contributing writer for BusinessWeek.com.