frankenfoods

When it comes to concerns about genetically modified (GM) crops and food ingredients, the proverbial cat is already out of the bag -- and on the loose . . . And then there's the issue of GM animals

A time to sow? GM food could curb cost of staples
By Clive Cookson, Financial Times, July 10 2008

So widely are genetically modified crops now grown around the world, for use in animal feed and as processed food ingredients, that feed importers in Europe and Asia are finding it difficult to supply customers who want non-GM soya or maize.

“You have to pay 10-15 per cent more for non-GM corn – if you can get it at all,” says Ross Korves, a leading US agricultural economist.

As world food prices surge and shortages loom, genetically modified crops look increasingly tempting as a way to raise agricultural yields without using more energy or chemicals. Even in Europe, where GM crops have faced the strongest public resistance, more politicians, experts and farmers’ leaders are speaking out in their favour. Sir David King, the UK government’s former chief scientist, is one who says GM is the only technology available to solve the world food price crisis. . . .



Americans may have come to accept food from genetically modified plants but GM animals seem to be a step too far even for US consumer opinion.

Scientists first added genes from other species to farm animals in the mid-1980s, at about the same time as they began to make experimental GM crops. Technically there is no reason why the fields should not be alive by now with sheep and cows genetically engineered to resist diseases such as mastitis or produce leaner meat and more nutritious milk.

Yet while millions of GM mice are used every year in pharmaceutical and biomedical research, an adverse political and regulatory environment has inhibited most development and all commercialisation of GM farm animals.

Last month the US Biotechnology Industry Organization issued a report enthusing about the potential of GM animals to “enhance human health, food production, environmental protection, animal health and cutting-edge industrial applications”. Scott Gottlieb, the report’s co-author, says: “The practical benefits of this technology have not yet reached patients and consumers primarily because of regulatory and political obstacles rather than the limits of science.” . . .

Complete story here