Tory MP and green activist Zac Goldsmith has slammed his party’s stance on animal cloning in a stinging comment piece for the Daily Mail.
“If members of the public were asked whether they would be happy buying [meat from cloned animals] from the butcher or supermarket, there would be a resounding ‘no’. Yet that is precisely what the Coalition Government is planning,” he writes.
His criticism comes after the government’s farming minister rejected new EU rules to control farm animal cloning despite widespread protest from MEPs.
Goldsmith warns that this represents a “worrying shift” for a party “whose pre-election pitch placed so much emphasis on sustainable food and farming.”
“We have a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which seems to have yielded absolutely to the interests of big agribusiness,” he continues.
“The department should be leading the way, but it appears blind to the instincts of consumers. We saw that during the proposed forest-sale fiasco, which backfired horribly, and unless we see a fundamental change in direction, there will be more to come.”
Matt Chittock
