Genetically Modified Meat As Food

The big question: Are GM Animals safe to eat? The simple answer, No! It only seems "natural" that after years of feeding GM crop to livestock, the agricultural and food industries would begin genetically modifying the livestock itself. It's been shown repeatedly that GM crop is unsafe for the animals and the humans who consume these animals, so why in the world would it be safe for us to eat animals that have been genetically modified?

It's the same old story: Scientists are attempting to modify animal DNA in order to produce offspring quicker, which are bigger, meatier, and more profitable in the long-run. We all know how this has worked out for fruits and vegetables-less nutrients, less flavor, and higher health risks when it comes to cancer and allergens.

"Over the past five years, GM soybeans and corn have become mainstays in processed food sold in the United States, despite nagging questions about the safety of the products and their potential capacity to cause ecological harm. Now, scientists, environmentalists, and food-safety advocates are concerned that GM meat, eggs, and milk could follow in the footsteps of transgenic crops, becoming a part of the U.S. diet before they have been shown to be safe for humans, animals, and the environment." [1]

The honest truth is, there is not enough information on GM animals to know if consuming them is safe for humans or not. But sadly, just as with GM plants, the desire to make money will most likely win-out over the need to know if these foods are safe for us. GM animals will most likely go on the market before we have enough information on their safety risks. And, just like with other modified foods (such as milk containing the bovine growth hormone), we, the consumers, may have no idea we are even eating genetically modified meat!

It is a sad state of affairs when the organization designed to protect us (The Federal Drug and Food Administration) can be swayed and coerced into turning a blind eye to what is really happening. As Jean Halloran, director of the Consumer Policy Institute at Consumers Union (The New York research institute that publishes Consumer Reports) puts it:

"The public is currently in the situation of not even having awareness that anyone is thinking about genetically engineering animals for human consumption," Halloran says. "And the way the structure is currently set up, that's going to go on until one day the FDA says, 'We've just approved a genetically engineered animal and we're not going to label it. So, here it is; eat it.'" [1]

In the meantime, we, as consumers, need to demand non-genetically modified meats, be aware of what we are eating, and continue to search for the truth.

[1] http://www.grist.org/article/and3/

http://mygardenwalk.com/

My number one focus is growing my own food. I don't think that really counts as a hobby. For some people it is, but for me, growing my own fruits and vegetables and saving my own seed is the key to survival. The only person you can count on is yourself, if you ask me. The government is trying to "help" us all with GMOs and welfare, but it's all a crock. We need to know how to survive on our own.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jerry_Greenfield
http://EzineArticles.com/?Genetically-Modified-Meat-As-Food&id=5778036

Biotechnology in Agriculture

The term agriculture refers to cultivation of plants, animals for food, fuels, clothes, medicine and other products which are essential for our living. Conventional agriculture is practiced in several ways by different people around the globe. It is well known that agricultural products have different quality from place to place and some of the agricultural products are not seen in some parts of the world, while they are abundant in the rest of the world. This difference is due to several factors including climatic conditions, weather, availability of water, mineral content in the soil, and last but not least political and geographical factors. Another factor which led to the development of modern agriculture is the need to increase yield of plant products, disease, pest, drought resistance in plant products.

Biotechnology has emerged from traditional science to overcome the problems in every aspect of life, from plant breeding to genetic engineering. Out of the vast applications of Biotechnology, Agricultural Biotechnology is one. It involves the development of plants in such a way that, plants produce high yields of products such as grains, vegetables, fruits, leaves (leafy vegetables) and they can tolerate extreme conditions such as high temperature, high salinity in water and high humidity in the air. Furthermore we can produce plant products as per our needs, and we can control the features like color, taste, odor and size of fruits and vegetables. All this is made possible by exploiting the properties of the miracle molecules called DNA (De Oxy Ribose Nucleic Acid). Since the discovery of DNA, scientists have developed the solutions to overcome the problems in Agriculture, by modifying the genetic structure of the DNA.

The crops whose DNA has been modified are called "Transgenic Plants" or "Transgenic Crops", and the products derived from these plants are called Genetically Modified plant products. So, how is this done? All the living beings, including animals, plants, bacteria, fungi and microorganisms have DNA, which guides their development and the pathway to their survival. This DNA in turn is divided in "genes", which are specific for each and every feature and function of a living organism. This means, if we modify the genes, we are actually modifying any particular 'feature' or 'function' of that organism or any part of that organism. The same principle is applied in Agricultural Biotechnology as well. If we are looking to enhance the color of the flowers produced by a plant, we can alter the genetic structure of gene which is responsible for that color. This procedure can be done using any plant part, another example would be increasing the sweetness of a fruit, in this case we modify the gene responsible for production of fructose. Fructose is a sugar which gives sweetness to fruits, in theory, if we change the gene to produce more fructose, and then the fruit will become sweeter.

The major breakthrough in Agriculture was seen, when the "Flavr Savr" tomatoes were introduced into the US markets on May 21, 1994. This discovery led to the foundation for storing vegetables and fruits without a refrigerator for several days. An enzyme called Polyglacturonase is responsible to dissolve the pectin of the cell-wall. A gene complimentary to the Polyglacturonase gene, can be cloned using antisense RNA technology. This antisense gene will block the Polyglacturonase produced by its gene and thus stops the decaying of fruits and vegetables. As the cell wall decaying enzyme is produced in very little quantities, the delay in spoilage of fruits and vegetables is increased. Now this revolutionary technology is used to save millions of dollars every year, by reducing the wastage of fruits and vegetables during transport.

We have discussed only a very few applications from the huge database of Biotechnological applications in Agriculture. While we have seen only the benefits of Biotechnology, at the same time everything in this world has its own pros and cons and Biotechnology is no exception for this. Non Scientific community has said much about the potential risks of Biotechnology to us and our environment, but so far there is little evidence from the scientific studies that the risks are real. At the same time we experience the range of benefits offered by transgenic plants, beyond the ones which emerged from traditional Agricultural practices.

The author blogs at HourlyBook.com, an open source portal for Science reference & education.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Javed_M.d_Shaik
http://EzineArticles.com/?Biotechnology-in-Agriculture&id=7662398

Transgenic Crops Get Good Marks in General in US Study

This is a video used for study english with subtitles English. You can become my subscribers to get full lesson here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_ce...

Best Books on Transgenic Animals