MEPs have voted to ban the cloning of animals and the entry of any descendants of cloned animals into the food chain.
The vote, which took place at the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, saw 529 politicians vote in favour of the ban, with 120 votes against and 57 abstentions. There had already been a moratorium on the cloning of animals in place.
However, the proposed legislation will impose an outright ban on the cloning of all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports into the EU.
Renate Sommer, of the European Parliament’s environment committee, said: “We want to ban comprehensively. Not just the use of cloning techniques but the imports of reproductive material, clones and their descendants.”
Giulia Moi, of the parliament’s agriculture committee, said the ban would cover all breeding material, such as semen and embryos, from animal clones, descendants of animal clones and any products derived from them.
It would also require any animal, food and feed of animal origin being imported into Europe to have import certifications that showed they were not animal clones or from their descendents, she said.
Both MEPs will now start negotiations with the council of the EU on the final shape of the law.
The move was welcomed by SNP MEP Alyn Smith, who voted in favour of the ban. Speaking following yesterday’s vote, he said: “Maintaining consumer confidence is vital for our farmers, and cloning animals for food raises questions about food safety, animal welfare, genetic diversity and livestock management. These are major issues which cannot be ignored. Science should evolve in a lab, not in our food chain.”
Conservative MEP Ian Duncan, who voted against the proposals, said the moratorium already prevents cloned animals, or meat from cloned animals, from entering the food chain.
He said: “I support the moratorium for now but if we preclude any more serious work in this area, we stop evolution of science.”