The European Parliament has voted to ban the cloning of all farm animals. The vote, which took place on 8 September, takes the Commission’s proposal a step further by extending the restriction to all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports into the EU. “Up to now, we have been able to import reproductive material from third countries. We are washing our hands letting others do the dirty work. We want to ban comprehensively. Not just the use of cloning techniques but the imports of reproductive material, clones and their descendants,” said the environment committee co-rapporteur, Renate Sommer. The draft was adopted by 529 votes to 120, with 57 abstentions. Parliament also extended the ban to cover all species of animals kept and reproduced for farming purposes and not only cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and horses, as proposed by the Commission. According to Parliament, the high mortality rates at all development stages of cloning raise significant animal welfare and ethical concerns. The lawmakers pointed to research by the European Food Safety Authority from 2008 that the health and welfare of clones are often severely affected. Many of the animals are born with abnormalities or die within the first few weeks after birth. “We need to take into account the impact on animal health, but also on human health,” said the agriculture committee co-rapporteur, Giulia Moi. “This reports sends the message to our trade partners that we are not willing to put our own health, our families’ health, and future generations’ health at stake,” she said. The vote comes amid concerns that the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) would allow the U.S. to import cloned animal products into the EU. In the U.S., the use of clones in food production is allowed, with milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring being sold in supermarkets. In the EU, a majority of citizens strongly oppose food from cloned animals and the use of cloning for farming purposes. MEPs of the Greens/ European Free Alliance welcomed the vote: “Clone food brings significant concerns, with impacts in areas such as livestock management and food security, but also in terms of genetic diversity and animal welfare. It would be totally irresponsible to ignore these and plough ahead with cloning as some misguided technological fix,“ said Green agriculture spokesperson José Bové. The text also demands that the legislation become a regulation, to be applied directly in all member states rather than a directive, which would require further national legislation. The co-rapporteurs will now enter into negotiations with the Council and Commission before the regulation can become law. (ab)