This salmon has an `oink' (Genetically altered pork)

[icymist]

This salmon has an `oink'
Genetically altered pork high in omega-3

By Denise Gellene
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published March 27, 2006


If a new kind of pork makes it to the dinner table, healthy eaters might finally be free to, well, pig out.

Scientists using genetic engineering have produced pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a kind of healthy fat abundant in many fish but not naturally found in meat.

The acids are believed to offer some protection against heart attacks, and federal nutrition guidelines recommend them in daily diets.

Questions remain, however. Because the research is in its early stages, no one has yet sampled the pigs to see if they still taste like pork.
(more)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0603270152mar27,1,5329061.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[pinniped]

1. Frankenpig, no thanks.

[SpiralHawk]

2. SalmoSwine, no thanks

Please be so kind as to pass along the vomit basin.

Republicon Food Product -- as wonderful as Republicon Economics ($9 trillion debt)

[nosmokes]

7. this is interesting -

The Food and Drug Administration has not allowed any genetically altered animals to enter the food chain.
Before clearing the meat for consumption, the FDA requires detailed biological information. "They treat them like they are a new drug,"

and yet, they allowed GMO in the form of grains and cereals and vegetables and fruit into the food stream in a NY second. not to mention the USDA allowing th open field planting of GE crops having no real idea what the full ramifications may be - in fact we still don't. and you know, if you're eating o much fat that you're clogging your arteries up with it, then maybe you should lay off the fucking rashers of bacon from industially raised pigs that never set foot on the ground and never feel the sunshine on their backs instead of putting nightcrawler genes into hogs. seems like a simpler more cost effective solution to me.

[truthisfreedom]

3. sounds fishy to me.

8^P

[formercia]

4. I had a vision of pork sushi n/t

[onehandle]

8. Everything has been made into sushi.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21671926@N00/107476425/

[yellowcanine]

68. Pork sushi? Oh that is an extremely bad idea.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001884.htm

[Beaverhausen]

5. This is just crazy

Screwing with DNA and metabolism and all this crap is going to be the end of us.

[formercia]

6. Think athletes and soldiers.

I'm sure it's already happening somewhere.

[Odin2005]

9. I don't see the problem with this.

What's so bad about healther pork? The anti-GM people are getting rediculous.

[DrunkenMaster]

11. yep

Totally ridiculous to find the splicing of fish and pig genes repulsive...you sure got us!

[Odin2005]

15. I'm a biotech major, so knows how genetic engineering works.

I see nothing repulisve about it, I find it facinating. It's what made me interested in molecular biology in the first place.

[Jim Sagle]

17. So I guess it's OK to jam it down our throats, huh?

[Odin2005]

18. Did I say you had to buy it?

GM foods should be labeled, so you don't have to eat it if you don't want to.

[Jim Sagle]

19. Most likely it will be AGAINST THE LAW to label GM foods.

That's how it is with milk today.

[OnionPatch]

26. That's how it is with EVERYTHING today

Did you all know that something like 80% of the corn in products on the market in the US is genetically modified? Almost 100% of soybeans is genetically modified. There have been tests in Europe and other countries that show rats getting cancer from eating the corn but since our US tests don't show the same, it's not even labeled here. No matter that the US tests were backed by Monsanto, the makers of the GMO stuff. :eyes:

There is no labeling of GMO products on the shelves now although the supermarkets abound with the stuff and you're probably eating it everyday. Why would they care to label the meat? Who's going to make them? It won't happen. We'll all be eating it soon without even knowing it.

[drm604]

29. "Why would they care to label the meat?"

I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment. In this case I think that they actually would want to label it. Otherwise, what's the point?

Their whole point in making such a pig would be to try to market it to health conscious consumers. I doubt that they'd just put it on the shelves and try to pass it off as regular old pork or bacon or whatever. The thinking would be that they could sell this for a higher price then regular old pork, ham, or bacon. This would cost more to produce (they'd have to pay the patent holder) so they will hype it to the consumer so that they can charge more.

I'm not saying that this kind of engineering is necessarily a good idea, but I really can't see them trying to pass this off as regular old pig.

[OnionPatch]

64. You're right, they will label this one

because it's for profit. But watch, the label will just talk about how the pork was "healthier." I'm willing to bet they won't mention the GMO part on the label.

[drm604]

66. You're right about that.

But it will be an open secret. People will know through word of mouth that the new "heart healthy ham" (or whatever they call it) is genetically engineered. There will be activist groups getting the word out about it and, unlike some other things, people will listen to this.

People always listen when it comes to what they put in their mouths. Just look at how silly rumors like "Kentucky Fried Rat" can hurt sales.

When people start hearing about pigs with worm genes they'll listen and they'll spread the story. In fact, it may hurt sales of all pig products.

[yellowcanine]

70. Actually U.S. consumers don't care. GMO/non-GMO as long as it is

cheap,looks good, and comes in a convenient package. We are cheap food whores. And most don't read labels anyway.

[pitohui]

82. don't eat corn or soybean and you've won most of the battle

soybean is easy to eliminate from the diet, if it has soybean in it, it's cheap cattle feed being sold to you at an inflated price, pass it by, americans did just fine w.out eating soybean for decades and we can do it again and save our butterflies

corn is more difficult but still quite do-able

[yellowcanine]

50. GM milk? Are you thinking BST milk? Not actually the same thing.

It is also a complicated issue because BST occurs naturally in milk so no one can truthfully label milk as "BST free". It is even difficult for them to label it "No BST added" because currently there is no test to certify that claim. We can test for antibiotics in milk, we cannot test for added BST because it is exactly the same as naturally occuring BST.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

21. so you enjoy eating bloody decomposing dismembered body parts/tissue

and find gentically modifying these mammals (whose bodies you enjoy) no big deal?

well I'm totaly 100% serious when I say I guess I see your point.

makes sense

[Katherine Brengle]

76. ...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[kestrel91316]

22. I won't allow it in my home. If it's not clearly labeled, I will not allow

ANY pork products in my home anymore.

Nobody forces me to purchase GM products against my will. I am philosophically opposed to this. GM = genetic pollution.

[nosmokes]

23. with all due respect, no you don't.

y'all come out with your GM crops and plant them in open fields a mile or two from conventional farmers and 5 miles or so organic farms and promise that the pollen isn't going to travel more than 2000' so cross contamination from your GM bullshit is impossible! i was at the damn grange meeting when the empty suit from monsanto said that. 5 years later we documented contamination from that GM test field 13miles away. Monsanto claimed it was an anomally until the same thing happened in a different sate in another part of the country.

and y'all have no clue about the long range ramifications of ingesting this shit, none. especially cross-species genetic alterations. so don't try and tell me that y'all know what the fuck you're doing. if ya did then indigenous corn species in mexico wouldn't be in danger of extinction, and monarch butterflys wouldn't b in trouble because so many of them turn sterile after feeding on your GM corn. i'm all for advancement in science, but why don't we try and make some dvances to increase efficiency of organic farmers and organic farming methods? a pasture raised pig is already healthier than on that's been raised in confinement, and it's led a life with joy and dignity before it's slaughtered. and some lardass can't get his oer butt off the couch and exercise and eat a healthy diet to control the blockage of their arteries why should we invent a new brand of pig so they can keep stuffing bacon burgers down their gullet?

[Theres-a]

25. Post of the day

Well said.

[yellowcanine]

33. Not to rain on your rant, but can you document the monarch butterfly part?

That's something I happen to know something about and I have never heard that GM corn can cause sterility in monarchs, which don't actually feed on corn, so it is hard to see how this could happen.

[MountainLaurel]

35. Some sources

The research thus far deals with the Bt variety of corn.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/290/5499/2088?ijkey=pIkSb3NPVJLbQ

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/110486235/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

http://www.usask.ca/politic/phillips/pdfs/Ag_Biotech_Environ_new.pdf

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/expand?pub=infobike://els/13601385/2001/00000006/00000012/art02196&unc=

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(s04pgs55250zc345j5ryix45)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,8,13;journal,15,27;linkingpublicationresults,1:103635,1

[yellowcanine]

37. Couldn't access most of those links but the ones I could did not address

my question about GM corn causing sterility in monarchs. Did one of your sources actually address that issue? There was a study a while back that suggested that pollen from Bt corn could inhibit the growth of or kill monarch larvae in laboratory feeding trials but this effect was never confirmed in follow up field studies as far as I know. The sterility thing I had never heard before. Do you have citations specific to this question?

[Lars39]

36. Here's a link that might help:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:uAyQH89My5kJ:www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/volume%25203.pdf+Mexico+GM+corn+can+cause+sterility+in+monarchs&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

[yellowcanine]

38. That source has some good info but doesn't actually address my question

about sterility in monarchs and GM corn. Also that paper is a review paper and is rather vaguely sourced for a review paper so it is hard to tell if the authors are quoting the original studies accurately, at least in regard to monarchs and GM corn. Review papers are good for pointing to sources on a topic but the original study paper should still be read to really see what the study said as well as how the study was done.

[yellowcanine]

41. Link to original paper on monarch mortality and Bt corn pollen

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Field-Deposition-Bt-Pollen.htm

Unfortunately this paper leaves a lot of unanswered questions as well. It is not a true "field study" in that there is no direct measurement in the field of larval mortality. We do not know, for example, what the actual exposure is of larvae in the field to Bt pollen. Also, the data in this paper suggests that the pollen levels would only be high enough to harm larvae within the actual corn field. That is not where most of the milkweeds are going to be and therefore where the most of the larvae are going to be. There is also no corresponding data to tell us where female monarchs actually lay eggs. Are they more likely to lay eggs on milkweed plants within a cornfield or on those plants outside of a cornfield?

This paper has nothing on any effects on monarch reproduction so I am still looking for that reference if anyone knows of it.

Regardless of whether all of the questions about the effects of Bt corn on monarchs have been answered, the question is what should be done based on what we do know. My feeling is at the least Bt corn varieties that have Bt in the pollen should probably not be planted but that it should be OK to plant Bt corn varieties that do not express Bt in the pollen (there are some of those available). Why use Bt corn at all? The alternative is to spray Bt (a biological insecticide). In my mind that is going to zap more monarch butterfly larvae (and other non target butterfly larvae) then would get zapped by using Bt corn because some of that Bt insecticide is going to end up on milkweed leaves and on the larvae themselves.

[Lars39]

42. Thanks for digging that up...fascinating topic.

[NickB79]

47. Monarchs are in trouble due to deforestation

Any sterility issues are a drop in the bucket when the forests they overwinter in are being clearcut and turned into grazing land and fields.

[yellowcanine]

49. Habitat loss is the number one cause of decline of most species of animals

and plants....

That said, it is still worthwhile to understand all causes of mortality and/or loss of reproductive fitness. In this particular case, Bt corn contributes very little to the mortality of monarchs imo and I have seen no data thus far on effects on monarch reproduction (of course if you are dead you can't reproduce).

[DrunkenMaster]

46. good for you

Just don't expect me to swallow it. Enjoy your fish-pig.

[woo me with science]

12. the added DNA comes from roundworms.

that just is viscerally a little gross to me.

[Odin2005]

16. How so?

The genes don't retain any essence of worminess when they are put in the pig DNA. Your "gross" comment reminds me of a story I heard about people refusing to drink purified water that came from toilets, as if it's still retained some "essence" of "dirtiness" even after it's been purified.

[woo me with science]

39. i wouldn't like to know

that my drinking water was from a toilet, either. as i said, it is an emotional reaction.

[yellowcanine]

43. Is it gross to think that you might be drinking Julius Caeser's piss?

Because you might be. Hydrological cycle. Look it up.

[Odin2005]

56. Bingo!

:applause:

[HereSince1628]

62. no, but breathing his CO2, now THAT bothers me.

:silly:

Atmospheric history, look it up!

[woo me with science]

93. LOL....At least it's Julius Caesar's. That's something. nt

[DrunkenMaster]

10. last month

Somebody on this board tried to defend GE food by claiming it was just an extension of traditonal breeding methods used by farmers for thousands of years....

[rfranklin]

14. Yes, they used to have pigs copulate with fish...

and I remember there were a few strange people on the farm who had hair just like sheep.

[Megahurtz]

13. AAAK! Jeez!

Gad I hate when they do that!x(

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

20. pet pigs are cute-smarter than dogs- Are dogs next to become omega-3 rich?

just thinking about it makes my mouth water with deelite--

mmmm ----those tender genetically modified chunx!
----moist and juicy-

[Coventina]

24. RANT: If pigs are not good for you, DON'T EAT THEM!!!

:wtf:

So we're fucking around with genetic code to make an animal "better" for us to eat?!?!?!

Does anybody else see how fucked up that is?!?!?! C'mon people, if bacon clogs your arteries, there's a simple fucking solution...........
Think hard, I'm sure it'll come to ya.......

:banghead:

How stupid are human beings anyway?!?!!?

[baby_mouse]

27. Not long before they genetically engineer humans to prefer the taste.

:eyes:

[pitohui]

84. pigs are perfectly good for you, check the okinawans

longest lived people on the planet, when the scientists tried to figure out why they lived longer than the japanese, they discovered it was okinawan traditional diet had pork in it, while japanese traditional diet was so low in fat that it increased the risk of brain hemorrhage

pork is good food and a healthy source of fat

it could save your bacon one day, dare i say it!

[OKIsItJustMe]

28. Last Week's News: Doubts cast on oily fish benefits

Is this bad timing or what?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4838086.stm

Doubts cast on oily fish benefits

There is no evidence of a clear benefit to heart health from fats commonly found in oily fish, researchers say.

Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids is thought to protect against heart disease and UK guidance advise eating up to four oily fish portions a week.

But the British Medical Journal review of 89 earlier studies looking at heart disease, cancer or strokes found no evidence the fats offered protection.

...

[yellowcanine]

30. The obvious question is, "Why not just eat salmon?" (forehead smack)

Jest askin'.

[OKIsItJustMe]

32. Re: Why not just eat salmon?

Because the Pork industry doesn't sell salmon. ;-)

[yellowcanine]

34. Well maybe they should if they want to sell the benefits of salmon.

[pitohui]

85. because farmed raised salmons don't have omega3s either actually

and wild salmon will soon be extinct

just sayin


for quite some while now it has been well-established that only wild salmon from cold waters have the omega-3s

altantic salmon, which is what you're eating if you're eating salmon most of the time, does not have any health benefits, what little remains in the wild is exposed to disease from domestic salmon etc.

[SOS]

31. Flax oil

is rich in Omega 3.
Available in capsules. Reasonable cost, very convenient, no animals involved.
It's easy to add Omega 3 fatty acids through flax or borage (even better) oils without this frankenfood crap.
This sounds like a marketing operation for the Pork Council. Sales must be down.

[DemGa]

40. Factory farm meat reeks

Literally smells bad; foul stuff.

[yellowcanine]

44. I have heard that before. How do you actually know this?

Have you done a blind smell test of fresh beef or chicken from a grocery store and free range beef or chicken, for example?

[DemGa]

79. I smelled some turkey at my school's cafeteria today

so it was on my mind. The smell reminded me of the way a commercial egg "hen house" smells, which is terrible. I'm mostly vegetarian so I haven't done too much side by side comparison.

[yellowcanine]

87. Any meat is going to smell bad to a vegetarian. I also noticed that

when I was in Mongolia - where people eat a LOT of meat, that people who eat a lot of meat have a "different" smell. After I was thare a while and eating a lot of meat, I didn't notice it anymore so I guess I smelled just like them. I think it has to do with meat, not how it is raised. Actually the difference between "conventional" chickens or turkeys can be pretty vague. In some cases it just means the door is left open for a minimal time each day, whether or not the chickens/turkeys actually go outside.

[KamaAina]

45. Salmon: The other white meat.

:puke:

[yellowcanine]

48. You will be happy to know that farmed salmon would be white except for

certain additives to their food.

http://www.salmonoftheamericas.com/color_of_salmon.pdf


Now doesn't that make you feel better?

[slackmaster]

51. Can I get one that glows in the dark too?

:nuke:

[yellowcanine]

53. All you had to do was ask.......No reason why not.....

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/fishnews/a/glofish.htm

If they can make a glow in the dark aquarium fish, why not a salmon or even a pig! Now, doesn't that make you happy just to know you could have one if you really wanted it?

[slackmaster]

57. The glow-in-the-dark pigs are a reality, my friend

Green eggs and high-Omega-3 ham, anyone?



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4605202.stm

[yellowcanine]

61. No, I said green EGGS and ham, dammit! Not green ham and eggs.

[cobalt1999]

52. how about test tube meat instead?...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060327.MEAT27/TPStory/?query=meat+starter+cells


Will consumers have a beef with test-tube meat?
ANNE MCILROY

SCIENCE REPORTER

Scientists can grow frog and mouse meat in the lab, and are now working on pork, beef and chicken. Their goal is to develop an industrial version of the process in five years.

If they succeed, cultured or in vitro meat could be coming to a supermarket near you. Consumers could buy hamburger patties and chicken nuggets made from meat cultivated from muscle cells in a giant incubator rather than cut from a farm animal.

Home chefs could make meat in a countertop device the size of a coffee maker. Before bed, throw starter cells and a package of growth medium into the meat maker and wake up to harvest fresh sausage for breakfast...

[yellowcanine]

54. I thought we already had that. It's called SPAM

[cobalt1999]

55. spam is meat?

I was never even able to classify it as animal, vegetable, or mineral.

[yellowcanine]

60. Since you asked...... from the err, pig's mouth

Q: What the heck is in SPAM anyway?

A: Pork shoulder and ham, mostly. And spices. Secret spices


http://www.spam.com/sp/sp_fq.htm

[Zhade]

58. I can see it now - New at McDonald's, the McFrogwich!

:puke:

[HereSince1628]

63. Actually, saddles of frog are OK. Have you ever tried them?

I'm not too worried about my health if I eat pork with salmon fatty acids in it. I am worried about having a pig kidney with human major histocompatibility factors being put in me or anyone I care about.

I'd just like to know if there are enough pig-years of study to know if porcines, no close relatives to the salmon, have any ill health effects from being exposed to novel fatty acids.

Regarding genetic engineering...we should all remember it is not the desired outcome but rather the unexpected outcome that turns out to be problematic...

[yellowcanine]

65. How about a nice grapple (grape apple)? The good news is it is not GM.

The bad news is it is an apple that smells and sort of tastes like a grape.

http://www.grapplefruits.com/MakingGrapples/

Who wants an apple that smells and tastes like a grape? Not me.
But then I don't want a potato chip with a fun fact printed on it either. And here I thought that they couldn't possible do anything worse to Pringles. I just have no imagination at all.

http://www.pringles.com/pages/pringles_print_main_guiness.shtml

[cobalt1999]

67. does it make a good wine?

I wonder what kind of fruit wine that would make?

[yellowcanine]

69. It would be a lot easier and cheaper to blend grape and apple juice imo.

[HereSince1628]

71. I tried one a grapple about a year and a half ago.

I'm still prefering Fuji's and Braeburns.

[Zhade]

89. Nope, haven't had that luxury.

Shark, eel, gator, escargot yes, but not the frog.

[Zhade]

59. Anyone who thinks GM food is okay, I have four words for you:

High-fructose corn syrup.

Or, to put it more accurately, "high fruit-sugar starch syrup". Drinking your way to a heart attack with that stuff. No thanks!

(Of course, it's in EVERYTHING now, so it's almost impossible to avoid...)

[Odin2005]

72. What does HFCS have to do with GM foods?

Sounds like a strawman.

[cobalt1999]

73. My guess..

it's about as natural for humans to consume HFCS as GM food. We are not sure of the long term effects of either one on our bodies and they are both becoming so common place that they are almost impossible to avoid.

At least HFCS is on the labels.

[Zhade]

88. Yeah, you got my point.

I wasn't saying they were linked, just that they're both bad for us when it was thought they might be okay.

[flvegan]

74. Still won't be healthy eating.

Basically, all they've done is take a crap food source (ham, bacon, etc) and add Omega 3s to it. Soooo....how does this equate to healthy eaters? What's the difference between eating a big ole hunk of fatty ham, then taking an Omega 3 supplement? That, or cooking your bacon in flax seed oil. Same effect most likely. Yeah, healthy indeed.

Oh, right...you weren't supposed to think. Logic was supposed to go right out the window. Yes, please, the curtain, don't look behind it. Bullshit science blinds the blindable once again.

[Beaverhausen]

75. That's right- just kill the thread with logic why don't ya?

:hi:

[flvegan]

77. I'm driven.

Yet, I'm not even on the payroll.

[Beaverhausen]

78. Ok- I have an idea - how about injecting ice cream with tomato DNA

That would make it healthy, right?

[flvegan]

80. In this case, DNA

should stand for "Do Not Add"

Ew. But, what if we injected the same salmon dna into milk. Mmmmmm...fishmilk. Yum.

[Odin2005]

83. This application is pretty stupid, but that doesn't mean the concept is.

What about genetically modifing grains to be more rich in vitamins? Vitamin-rich bread, anyone?

[flvegan]

86. No, actually, on it's face

the concept is pretty stupid.

What I'd really like to see is how they'll factory farm these Omega3 pigs. Will the steroids and hormones cancel out the benefits?

God forbid ask a question.

[lakeguy]

92. what about just eating the proper foods that contain the

vitamins and minerals your body needs? is that really so difficult?

instead we are spending unknown amounts of money trying to get around nature. we are also meddling in the very code that makes up other living species that will have unknown consequences in the future. it isn't natural and it isn't right. nothing we do seems "natural" anymore. we are living on a planet that took billions of years to develop but we want to change everything in a matter of years so we can have a mctastey from micky d's delivered to our doorstep that's full of omega threes or other vitamins and minerals that are already available in plenty of other foods.

[NMMNG]

90. Shhhhh, don't be talking facts when meat is involved

It's not popular, you know.

[pitohui]

81. i like my pork the way it is

when the winds of nutritional "advice" shift and change,as they will will we be able to get our real pigs back or will they be lost forever

christ

already it is being pointed out that lard is healthier than trans-fats which we were supposed to eat instead of lard and bacon, and not just a little bit healthier but a LOT

so now they're going on another kooky good fat/bad fat rampage?

leave the damn food alone

at least when they were making fake food out of transfat you could be confident that the food in the meat dept. was still real


"believed" to offer "some" protection against heart disease (in other words, prob. doesn't help one tiny whit) is not sufficient cause to radically alter a traditional food item

[LeftyMom]

91. Here's an idea- want protection from heart disease? Don't eat pigs.

Yeah, so it won't score any ag department funding but there's a track record of good science behind it, unlike FrankenPigs.

There's plenty of omega threes in nuts, flax seeds and hemp, so you don't even need an animal source to get them.