State Senate panel OKs bill to label cloned foods

A proposal for mandatory labeling of all food from cloned animals passed its first test in the California Legislature Wednesday when the Senate Health Committee endorsed it by a 6-3 vote. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Carol Migden, D-San Francisco, would require every merchant along the food supply chain, from livestock producers to grocery store operators, to tell their customers that a product came from a cloned animal or its offspring. Whether any state law on cloned foods ever takes effect might depend on the federal government's power to pre-empt state legislation on food labeling, a question that may only be settled in court. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited the pre-emption issue when he vetoed a similar bill that Migden sponsored last year. Even if all state proposals are defeated, one avenue remains for a labeling law. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., is trying to enact similar labeling requirements on the federal level. Her proposal is an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Commission bill, S2663. The provision has not yet come up for a vote.