Johnson, C. Y. (2018, December 17). Gene-edited farm animals are coming. Will we eat them? Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/12/17/feature/gene-edited-farm-animals-are-coming-will-we-eat-them/?utm_term=.5a8ad80bca19
A group of scientists at the University of California Davis are you expecting a group of genetically engineered cows to be born. These cows are genetically engineered to grow and look like males despite their biological gender. The ultimate goal of this project and similar projects is to introduce genetically engineered animals into human food supply. Cows that grow like males would be of particular interest to ranchers because male cows grow more efficiently and quicker than female cows do. However, there is currently regulatory challenges in the way of similar discoveries to make their way into our food supply.
When speaking about environmental science, the meat industry is an interesting topic because the meat industry is already responsible for a number of environmental issues. There are the issues of sustainability, runoff fertilizer, methane emission, what cows are fed, and the corn industry. This new development has the potential to affect almost all these aspects of the meat industry, as it has the potential to increase efficiency, reduce land usage, and also has the potential to create new problems, like a lack of genetic diversity.
How interesting… if you recall the growing of cattle is already quite a bit faster than it was a couple decades ago. So what do you think about this? Not to say there isn’t a place for GMOs, but is this it? You raise some good points in your follow up paragraph but I’m curious about what your opinion is.
Obviously there is more to follow on this and your entire topic- I hope it has kept you interested this year and feel you have a more grounded and informed position on this. Thanks for all the heavy lifting along the way.
It’s really interesting that scientists are able to genetically modify animals to this extent, especially ones as large as a cow. It puts into question what it could mean for other animal life and for humans. In addition to increasing efficiency of the major meat industry, do you think there is potential for this technology to benefit smaller, struggling communities?
I think people should become much more aware with what cows already do to the environment. I think that this new way of cows will definitely be the way of the future.