歐盟委員會近日宣布,將在近期就克隆食品提出一項(xiàng)立法建議,建議歐盟在今后5年暫停用于食品生產(chǎn)的動(dòng)物克隆,不過,仍將允許從美國等地進(jìn)口用克隆動(dòng)物后代生產(chǎn)的食品。歐盟委員會負(fù)責(zé)衛(wèi)生與消費(fèi)者事務(wù)的一位委員表示,克隆動(dòng)物食品是安全的,與正常繁殖的動(dòng)物食品沒有什么區(qū)別;此次提出暫時(shí)禁令只是出于動(dòng)物福利方面的考慮。他同時(shí)指出,克隆動(dòng)物通過傳統(tǒng)方式繁殖的后代用于食品生產(chǎn)和銷售不在禁止之列,因?yàn)檫@些產(chǎn)品的源頭無法追蹤,而且對其實(shí)行禁令可能導(dǎo)致國際貿(mào)易混亂。
The European Union announced plans on Tuesday to temporarily ban the use of animal cloning for food production. |
The European Union announced plans on Tuesday to temporarily ban the use of animal cloning for food production, while allowing imports of food derived from the offspring of clones from the United States and elsewhere.
The report from the European Commission followed a call by EU lawmakers in July for a total ban on food derived from cloned animals and their traditionally bred offspring, citing ethical concerns over the industrial production of cloned meat.
The Commission said a temporary five-year EU ban on cloning for food production was justified on animal welfare grounds, but said banning imports of food from the offspring of clones was unnecessary and would disrupt global trade.
"Food from cloned animals is safe. In fact, the scientific opinion is that it cannot be differentiated in any way from food from normally bred animals. The issue is animal welfare," EU Health and Consumer Commissioner John Dalli told reporters.
Food derived from the offspring of clones presents no such animal welfare issues, and banning its sale and import would be impossible because the origin is untraceable, Dalli said.
"Such a prohibition would lead to a ban of imports of any food of animal origin (meat, milk and processed products) from third countries allowing the cloning technique," the report said.
"We're not going to regulate for the world," Dalli added.
But animal welfare groups criticized the Commission's decision, saying it had bowed to pressure from third countries.
"We do not accept the Commission's position that it would be impossible to enforce a ban that includes the offspring of cloned animals, as (other) meat traceability systems are already in place," said Sonja Van Tichelen, director of the Eurogroup for Animals.
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(Agencies)
(中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯)