Dairy groups resist cloned-cow milk

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

As the Food and Drug Administration considers whether to lift a voluntary ban on selling food from cloned animals, the agency is facing some resistance from an unusual source: the dairy industry.

Trade groups for farmers and companies that use dairy products are not enthusiastic about introducing milk from cloned cows into the marketplace, fearing that consumers would be leery about the products.

"There's a strong general feeling among our members that consumers are not receptive to milk from cloned cows," said Susan Ruland, a spokeswoman for the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents food manufacturers that use dairy products.

Cloning uses the DNA of a single parent to create an offspring genetically identical to the parent.

"This seems to be one of the things where technology seems to drop something in the lap of the food companies," Miss Ruland recently said. "It's not driven by the market or any benefit to the consumer."

A 2002 Gallup poll found that 66 percent of American consumers said that cloning animals was "morally wrong." A March survey by the International Food Information Council, an industry trade group, reported that 63 percent of consumers likely would not buy food from cloned animals, even if the FDA determined the products were safe.

Last month, the National Milk Producers Federation, representing dairy farmers, approved a position statement that it "does not at this time support milk from cloned cows entering the marketplace until FDA determines that milk from cloned cows is the same as milk from conventionally bred animals."

Because cloning a cow is expensive, about $20,000, selling meat from a clone wouldn't be financially viable. The main commercial benefit would be to sell milk from the clone of a prized cow, or for breeding purposes.

The dairy groups' position is at odds with the biotechnology industry and the small number of farmers who have invested in cloning cows.

Barbara Glenn, director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, predicted that cloning will benefit both consumers and producers.

"With any new technology, you'll have groups concerned about it," she said.

Bob Schauf, a dairy farmer from Barron, Wis., about 90 miles east of Minneapolis, cloned his prize-winning Holstein about four years ago, making four copies -- one of which died because of complications while calving earlier this year.

Mr. Schauf called the ban "ridiculous. It's a phobia more than anything scientific. We need to get FDA to come along and say it's fine. They're as normal as any other animal. Common sense has to take over soon."

Because the FDA has asked farmers not to sell products from cloned animals, Mr. Schauf feeds the milk to his family and employees. He said he has other elite cows that he would like to clone but has held off because of the government action.