Greece boosts protected areas

at 700 studies into cloned food, the FDA said there was no evidence that produce from clones was harmful to health, " MailOnline (2 August) reported. " The FDA found no science-based reason to require labels to distinguish between products from clones and products from conventionally produced animals. " After ignoring the story for two days, other newspapers, as well as broadcasting media, did pick up one aspect on 4 August. The Guardian (4 August) reported a statement from the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) that, while there was no health risk in eating food from healthy clones or their offspring, the entry of such meat into the food chain had breached food laws. " However, there was confusion when officials from the European Commission (EC) said the FSA was wrong in its interpretation of the European Union regulations, and that offspring of cloned animals were not covered. " Likewise, " there could be plenty of milk (and by implication other food products) from clones' offspring in EU food already. " The Daily Telegraph (4 August) quoted an EC official as saying that, because there were no restrictions on importing semen from a cloned animal, thousands of pigs and cows in Europe could be the offspring of cloned animals. " Millions of doses of semen are imported into Britain every year, and the Department of Agriculture confirmed it did not monitor whether they were from cloned animals or not. " Cannily, the Daily Mail tucked away all signs of dissent from its case as inconspicuously as possible. Few readers, therefore, may have reached the end of its article on 4 August. There they could have read: " Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research, said meat and milk from these animals would be 'normal'. He said: 'Cloning is a way to copy individual cows that give exceptionally high yields or bulls that are either excellent for beef or able to sire offspring of high quality. Using such a cloned animal in a breeding programme can increase the quality and yield of a herd of cattle.' " Bernard Dixon is the European editor of the American Society for Microbiology. Amidst all its problems, the country has backed wildlife improvements. Nigel Williams reports. Greece has been going through difficult economic times of late, so the recent announcement by the ministry for …