[Newsbot]

Title: Could Canadian-made Enviropiggy go to market?
Category: Science
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2010-09-25 16:49:01
Canadian

[wildrosegirl]

That's just great. You dumb asses just keep messin' with Mother Nature.

We'll keep hunting and fishing.

[Hyack]

When will people ever learn......

[wildrosegirl]

Exxxxxxactly.

Wait til she decides she's had enough of these childish shenanigans. Humans think they're so smart with their little scientific tricks. I shudder to think what tricks that ol' girl might have up her sleeve. More frightening yet is she likely isn't that far from unleashing them.

[Gunnair]

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

Exxxxxxactly.

Wait til she decides she's had enough of these childish shenanigans. Humans think they're so smart with their little scientific tricks. I shudder to think what tricks that ol' girl might have up her sleeve. More frightening yet is she likely isn't that far from unleashing them.

That being said, this is a new way to do an old thing. Much of the domesticated animals and grains we eat have been changed by breeding over many decades. Humans have been tinkering with better ways to make what we eat more durable for our weather, better to eat, or whatever since we began domestication thousands of years ago.

[wildrosegirl]

Gunnair Gunnair:

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

Exxxxxxactly.

Wait til she decides she's had enough of these childish shenanigans. Humans think they're so smart with their little scientific tricks. I shudder to think what tricks that ol' girl might have up her sleeve. More frightening yet is she likely isn't that far from unleashing them.

That being said, this is a new way to do an old thing. Much of the domesticated animals and grains we eat have been changed by breeding over many decades. Humans have been tinkering with better ways to make what we eat more durable for our weather, better to eat, or whatever since we began domestication thousands of years ago.

The thing is, all of the tinkering we do is fueled by the dollar signs at the end of the grocery store check out. Not enough regard is given to the long term effects of that tinkering. We've created a health epidemic in north america, and severely damaged many delicate balances in nature. At what point is the cost finally going to be too high? AFTER we're all living in glass bubbles eating dehydrated, genetically modified everything?

[Guy_Fawkes]

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

Gunnair Gunnair:

wildrosegirl wildrosegirl:

Exxxxxxactly.

Wait til she decides she's had enough of these childish shenanigans. Humans think they're so smart with their little scientific tricks. I shudder to think what tricks that ol' girl might have up her sleeve. More frightening yet is she likely isn't that far from unleashing them.

That being said, this is a new way to do an old thing. Much of the domesticated animals and grains we eat have been changed by breeding over many decades. Humans have been tinkering with better ways to make what we eat more durable for our weather, better to eat, or whatever since we began domestication thousands of years ago.

The thing is, all of the tinkering we do is fueled by the dollar signs at the end of the grocery store check out. Not enough regard is given to the long term effects of that tinkering. We've created a health epidemic in north america, and severely damaged many delicate balances in nature. At what point is the cost finally going to be too high? AFTER we're all living in glass bubbles eating dehydrated, genetically modified everything?

I agree we should stop progression and go back to living in the woods and wiping our asses with pinecones.

[Khar]

Wildrosegirl, the article already mentioned one of the chief problems with pork consumption already present -- these farms have massive run off. I don't know how many of you have been around rivers, ponds and such which are contaminated by the run offs, but they have changed significantly over the past few years. If you want to talk environmental problems, the first place you have to look is here -- alongside the issues of ballast from international trade and the myriad problems of varying degrees caused there when buying clothing, food, medicine, or other basic living need in Canada from any other nation. The latter, of course, is another debate for another time.

It was not hard to link which streams were being changed by increased algae production. There's been no shortage of discussion, papers, and news articles on damage done across the country by farm run off, pig farms included, ranging from contamination in Lake Winnipeg to algae blooms in streams across southern Ontario. That these new genetically modified pigs would be able to alter that in part would be a boon to me in this regard, personally, and this comes from a person who does have a fair few farming relatives. The streams are not what they once were, for a lot of reasons -- perhaps taking a chance on these pigs can also lead us down the path of eating meat with less hormones in it. There's a reason this is called the "enviro-piggy."

We also have to look at the current restrictions of the above on the industry and the potential for expansion. Could expansion lower the price of these products? Could it increase Canadian exports? Could it make food (inflated with subsidies to support family farms and hence blamed with assisting poverty in emerging economies) reduce in price, making it easier for impoverished Canadians to afford a staple of a healthy diet? Of course, the idea that this industry is even prime for expansion with the current subsidy setup I mentioned is me going out on quite a limb, so I'm likely at least partially wrong there, but felt it worth mentioning anyways.

Should we not try and take this initial step to solve these problems and see how it goes? The leap between eating a new type of pig to try and help the environment contrasts a bit with being a bubble entirely separated from it, and is quite a leap between the two, no?

As mentioned, this has already been produced by university students -- it's actually the companies balking on this one, so you can't really call the driving push to be money on the companies' here. They feel society would be adverse to the idea of eating GM'd pork products and are hence avoiding it as bad publicity.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Now all they gotta do is GM us humans so we can stomache all the GM foods we get shoved at us with little or no choice.