HUMAN GENES FOR BREAKFAST?

You may one day be eating steak, chicken, pork or lamb [as well as vegetables and fruit] made from human and animal genes. Genes are the building blocks of life. They control eye colour, height, intelligence, and a million other things that make us human.

Scientists can swap genes from one person to another, between plants, animals or insects to see what happens. Salmon with extra mouse and human genes grow fast - up to four times normal size in a few months. Designer meat can be made by mixing our genes with animals to make superbreeds. (Article written in 1994).

Humanised cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep and fish have already been born - just some of 60,000 mutants made each year by British scientists...

One set of humanised pigs grew fast but were blind, impotent and crippled with arthritis. They were almost all pig and looked like pigs but scientists can make them half human if they like.

Geeps have already been made from sheep and goat - so why not humigs or humonkeys too? They could try to make monkeys with human speech. We can try just about any mix of genes we like.

Scorpion poison genes have been given to cabbages. The cabbages kill caterpillars but what about people?

[Note: Unless labeled certified organic, nearly all corn products in the US, including soft drinks and candy made with corn syrup, are currently made with corn that, like the cabbage above, was genetically modified to produce its own pesticide. Thus, the pesticide is in the corn itself. It cannot be washed off, and people are eating it! Other crops such as soy, which is contained in many popular foods, unless certified organic, is genetically modified to tolerate dozens of applications of the poisonous RoundUp herbicide, which is sprayed repeatedly on the plant itself. This poison also becomes a part of the food. The FDA, whose "food safety" czar used to work for Monsanto, refuses to thoroughly test these poison-ridden foods for safety or to warn the consumer by requiring identification of them on food labels. BTW, the chemical poison company Monsanto owns the "patents" on these "frankenfood" seeds and appears to have an agenda to contaminate or destroy all other seeds, including ones that have been around for thousands of years. If they are successful, they would ultimately have complete control the world's food supply.]

Poison genes from bacteria have been added to potatoes. These mutant vegetables look and taste identical. Non-bruising tomatoes have also been made...

The government says labels are a waste of time and effort. They test new foods and reckon those on sale are safe. Supermarkets don't want gene labels on bread, beef or canned tomatoes because they think people will be scared off. No labels, no choice. They remember the big fuss over nuclear radiation used to stop meat getting too bad to eat.

The moment they were forced to tell shoppers which foods had been treated they knew the battle was lost. Most of us didn't want to eat irradiated food, even if it was as safe as experts said. One by one, the big food chains banned the process - by popular demand.

However there is one big difference when it comes to mutant meat. You might be happy the meat is safe, but do you really want to eat someone else's genes?

Even hungry meat eaters may turn up their noses at humanised pork chops with their scorpion salad and rubberised tomatoes...

The above was written by Dr Patrick Dixon, the author of Futurewise.

http://www.globalchange.com/scotgene.htm