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FROM DAILY MAIL

The rice with human genes
By SEAN POULTER
Last updated at 08:57 06 March 2007

The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production.

The laboratory-created rice produces some of the human proteins found in breast milk and saliva.

Its U.S. developers say they could be used to treat children with diarrhoea, a major killer in the Third World.

The rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein Foods, the first mingling of human-origin genes and those from plants. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already signalled it plans to allow commercial cultivation.

The rice's producers, California-based Ventria Bioscience, have been given preliminary approval to grow it on more than 3,000 acres in Kansas. The company plans to harvest the proteins and use them in drinks, desserts, yoghurts and muesli bars.
The news provoked horror among GM critics and consumer groups on both sides of the Atlantic.

GeneWatch UK, which monitors new GM foods, described it as "very disturbing". Researcher Becky Price warned: "There are huge, huge health risks and people should rightly be concerned about this."

Friends of the Earth campaigner Clare Oxborrow said: "Using food crops and fields as glorified drug factories is a very worrying development.

"If these pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers' plates, the consequences for our health could be devastating.
"The biotech industry has already failed to prevent experimental GM rice contaminating the food chain.

"The Government must urge the U.S. to ban the production of drugs in food crops. It must also introduce tough measures to prevent illegal GM crops contaminating our food and ensure that biotech companies are liable for any damage their products cause."

In the U.S., the Union of Concerned Scientists, a policy advocacy group, warned: "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors.


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Technology needed to feed world in 2050: scientists
Last Updated: Monday, August 16, 2010 | 3:26 PM ET Comments278Recommend50CBC News


Artificial meat, nanotechnology and genetic tools are among the "tools of science" that may be needed in the coming decades to help supply food to the world's population, scientists say.

"The tools of science will be critical for bringing about food security and well-being for a global population of more than nine billion people in 2050 in the face of enormous technological, climatic and social challenges," predicted a paper published Monday by the Royal Society.

The author, Philip Thornton of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, looked into recent trends in livestock production and the future prospects of the industry as part of a series of 21 papers on the future of the global food and farming system.

The reports by scientists around the world were published in the latest issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Thornton's report noted demand for meat, milk and other animal food products has been growing quickly with increasing urbanization and higher average incomes worldwide.

Meanwhile, water and land for agriculture is growing increasingly scarce — a problem made worse by climate change and biofuel crops competing with regular food crops. The study predicted that will lead to much higher prices for meat, milk and eggs in coming decades.

The growing of animal muscle in vats to produce artificial, cultured or "in- vitro" meat, is one possible way to help meet demand, it said.

"From a technological point of view … its development is generally held to be perfectly feasible," the report said. It acknowledged the public may be slow to accept cultured meat. But such a product could be made healthier and more hygienic than "traditional" meat, the paper said, and it could also reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by livestock.

However, it estimated another decade of research is needed, and challenges such as cost and scale will need to be addressed before artificial meat hits grocery store shelves.

Nanotechnology — which uses minute particles under 100 nanometres in size — could also help boost meat production, the report said. Nanosized sensors are being developed to monitor animals' health. Nanoparticles may be able to help target drugs and boost animals' nutrient uptake, the study said.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/16/technology-food-security-artificial-meat.html#ixzz0wsAlw8XO
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GMO Trilogy - Unnatural Selection (part 1 of 5)
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Vegetarians (well not me) have been said to have no ethical issues with the new breakthrough of meat grown in a petri dish, simply on the basis that it wasnt taken from a dead animal...

Lets get something straight. Life feeds on life. Its not a matter of whether its ethical to eat life, rather its a scientific necessity. I did not choose to become vegetarian because of the gross factor and the romanticization of nature. I became vegetarian (for the most part) because of its SUSTAINABILITY, as well as the MALTREATMENT of animals. An animal given a quick death, that has lived a life of leisure in the barnyard is fair game. Its the EXCESS and the SIDE EFFECTS and the UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES of biotechnology that will destroy the lot of us before they have successfully foolproofed it for the remaining rich infopimps that dictate whether or not you read this.

On the flipside, science is not bad. I am pro-science and essentially I am pro technocracy (with some minor alterations). I am not anti-GMO because I believe god will strike me down, rather its because I THINK. I am against the misapplication of science, and scientific hegemony, I am against using the public as lab rats, and am against the unintended consequences of any discovery fastracked for the sake of profit.

So to those in the granola flats, and for those that call them sinners, I think you should reconcile your subjectively bound fundamental beliefs and differences so we can get on with the REAL revolution already. For the love of fuck. Lets get our facts straight, cut the bullshit. Please.


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"Thomas Pawlick's new book is full of very scary facts on how modern industrial farming techniques have reduced the available nutrients. For instance, since 1950 supermarket potatoes in Canada no longer contain Vitamin A, their iron quotient has been reduced by 57% along with their Vitamin C. Meanwhile, tomatoes have lost 61.5% of their calcium, 35.5% of their iron and 50% of their Vitamin A while gaining 200% more sodium! The End of Food shows how it's not enough simply to eat a salad, consumers need to think carefully about who grew the ingredients in it and how and where. And that's not even getting into what's put into our livestock. Gremolata's Malcolm Jolley caught up with the author recently in Toronto."

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